A day on Street Level

The sun slowly rises over the tops of the downtown towers, colours spearing from the heavens as the city begins to wake. As God shines down, the front doors of Street Level open and those who have slept outside shuffle forward to the doors where they know they will be welcome, where they are missed if they don’t show up, where they know that unconditional caring and empathy await. Those who are heading to work but need razors, a washroom or just a morning greeting soon begin to enter, knowing that they will work a full day and still not have enough to pay the exorbitant rents that Calgary demands.

The staff on Street Level never know what the city will bring them. There may be a fight on the corner. A guest who has been using the supports of The Mustard Seed for years may share the story of one of their friends dying on the streets last night, and the staff and guest mourn together for a friend who has been lost. The busses arrive from our shelter bringing guests back downtown so that they can begin their days: working, connecting to resources, surviving.

The stories are as diverse and unique as each individual who enters the doors of The Mustard Seed downtown. The needs that brings these people to the doors are not just met through the provision of food, emergency services and programming but through relationships, respect and the knowledge that whatever this day holds for those without housing in Calgary and for those living in poverty, there is someone out there who cares, there is a safe place to be and they know in their hearts that, when the time is right, hope will turn into reality.

Volunteer groups support formerly homeless individuals

Imagine you’ve been living in a shelter with a community of 300 roommates. Then you find housing and suddenly you’re on your own! Lonely, isolated, and bored. Chances are good that you’ll fall back into unhealthy habits.

Aftercare at The Mustard Seed works to house clients who have been living in our shelter, and part of helping them is encouraging a healthy lifestyle and getting appropriate supports in place.

We believe that, as human beings, we were created to live in community with one another, and unfortunately, not everyone has a healthy community. That’s where volunteers come in.

Groups of volunteers are coming together with the Aftercare team to form a supportive network for a client who is transitioning to the freedom, independence and responsibility that comes with having an apartment of their own. This looks different depending on the client and group of volunteers, but examples are: going out for coffee at the local Tim Horton’s and talking about how life is going, going out to the bowling alley, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a picnic at Princess Island park, etc. The possibilities are many and volunteers have the opportunity to get creative!

Volunteers in these supportive capacities will have the opportunity to work as a team and support one another. This is really an opportunity for those in the Calgary community to come together with The Mustard Seed and intentionally help their neighbors get back up on their feet!

If you would like to learn more about volunteering with Aftercare, please email kristyferguson@theseed.ca

Bicycles

When I (Caitlin) reminisce about my childhood, I have strong memories of riding my bike. I rode with my family around town, with my best friends to the park and by myself to school.

Two months ago, The Mustard Seed Edmonton hosted our annual Kid's Petting Zoo. Part of this event was a Win-A-Bike Contest, asking people to draw a picture of the bike they wanted to win or describe what they would use their bike for or what they would name it. We had over 120 entries from people ages 3 to 64. On the day of the event, twelve lucky winners went away with new bikes and huge smiles! It was a good day.

But then I looked through the entries of those who didn't win

and saw this picture...

And I read this....

Then I cried because there were still over 110 people who needed bikes. As staff, we decided to raise money to buy more bikes... and then synergy happened! All of a sudden, people knew people who knew people who could help us get more bikes. We've had bikes come from as far as Lacombe and volunteers have donated bikes or used their skills to fix them. One of my favourite things about working at The Mustard Seed is the way the wider community responds to help us.

It's been amazing to give the bikes away to families so they can be active and have fun together. Today I gave a bike to a man who recently got a new job and will use his bike to get to work. These bikes are giving people the opportunities to affordable transportation and free ways to be fit and have fun.

The Mustard Seed is about building community, growing hope and supporting change. Sometimes that starts with something as simple as a bicycle.

Cultivating community in our garden

Did you know there's a rooftop garden in the middle of downtown Calgary? Or that it's run by staff, volunteers and clients of The Mustard Seed?

With help from lots of amazing volunteers, we planted the garden on our Community Centre this spring and we've been reaping the benefits ever since.

Tammy Winterfield was instrumental in getting the local community on board, including lining up sponsors and volunteers. “We have had some guests regularly involved and that’s been great. It has been a very positive thing for our community," she says. "The beginning of the rooftop garden has been very fruitful and our community has enjoyed using the space."

See more below, and watch out for our newsletter, coming tomorrow!



How are you getting involved in your community? Are there any initiatives you'd like to see started? Let us know in the comments!

Our Alberta Office

Hi! I'm Sarah McKenzie and I'm the Marketing and New Media Manager for The Mustard Seed's Alberta office. I'm going to take you on a tour through our digs, so grab some refreshments and your reading glasses. First through the door is myself. Sorry there aren't pictures like this of everyone. Believe me, you don't know how sorry I am. You might have seen this face in our YouTube videos; I am responsible for managing The Mustard Seed's online presence across the province, among other things.

Across from me you'll find Georg, Allan and Peter - they run Seedworks, a company that is part of The Mustard Seed and takes much longer than a sentence to explain. Basically they employ a number of our guests, as well as seek out new housing options for us to pursue for our guests. Craig, who is just down the hall, is involved with the housing as well.

Karina (@la_canadiense on Twitter) and I share a [chalkboard painted] wall and she's the mastermind for assistant to Jeff Dyer, who you heard from yesterday. Jeff (@jeffndyer on Twitter) is our Chief Operating Officer and joined The Mustard Seed about a year and a half ago. You'll hear from him more on the blog, don't worry. Moving right along (did you bring your refreshments?), Aart Schuurman Hess is the Interim Chief Executive Officer, Interim Chief Development Officer and our Chief Administrative Officer as well. We'll just say he's a busy guy. His assistant, Joyce, definitely helps him to keep it together.

After Joyce is Irene, our in-house strategist and consultant who helps with many different projects at The Mustard Seed, and at the end of the hall, Kathleen and Janet share an office. Kathleen helps our development department with various projects, and Janet is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to research.

And there you have it! The Alberta Office is a great place to hang out, but during the summer it's been pretty quiet. How should we spruce things up? What do you do when your office is empty during the summer?

Oh, and one more thing - you can subscribe by email over there ---> on the right and get notifications in your inbox when we put up a new post. Just saying.