Learning from the actions of children

I make it a point to blog every time someone tells me about another group of children making a wonderful donation to Shepherds of Good Hope. At this time of year, I could probably blog several times a week.

This week, a big thank you goes out to the students of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School in Orleans. On Tuesday, this group of Grade 1-6 students gathered in their gym and made over 2,000 sandwiches -- 2,090 to be precise. It took them less than a morning.

Sandwiches are so important to us. Although the soup kitchen is open for three meals a day as well as an evening drop-in, hunger doesn't follow a schedule. At any time of the day, someone could come to our doors, hungry and cold, and ask for a sandwich. Thanks to schools like St. Francis of Assisi, we have a sandwich to give them. During our evening drop-in, which is for clients as well as anyone living in the community, we make sandwiches and soup everyone.

There is a lesson here to learn from the students. First, it doesn't take a lot of work to make an impact. Secondly, the children don't question what the impact is of making sandwiches or making some other type of donation. They simply do what they can to help those who are less fortunate than themselves. They are also very eager to soak up what knowledge they can about homelessness. They want to know why people are homeless. They want to know what we do to help the homeless people. More importantly, they want to know what they can do to help the homeless. We can all learn from these children.

In the photo are some of the students who made the sandwiches. Thank you taking them all out to our truck. I know Don and Steve appreciated the extra help.

Students getting a charitable education

One of the fun parts of my job is getting a chance to meet with so many students who come to Shepherds of Good Hope for a tour.

Regular readers of my blog know I'm a big believer in everyone getting a firsthand look at what we do. We're very well known for being a shelter and a soup kitchen. Food and shelter are indeed two very important things Ottawa's most vulnerable men and women need. But we are so much more and over our 32 years, we have moved beyond a soup kitchen.

Typically students come for a tour because they want to do something for us. They want to give back to those most in need, especially as we get closer to the holidays. They visit because they want to see the impact their donation is going to have. Quite often it inspires them to exceed their original goal.

Depending on the size of the class, students get a tour of the soup kitchen, the food and grocery program and we also give a short presentation on our other services.

This morning students from Pierre Savard School and Immaculata High School were here. Thank you so much everyone for coming out.

It's award season for schools

Even though school has only been in session for a few weeks, it's time to honour two schools with the Ottawa Catholic School Board.

At our annual general meeting Tuesday evening, we celebrated the fundraising efforts of St. Francis of Assisi and Sacred Heart High School. The students of St. Francis of Assisi, an elementary school, made more than 2,000 sandwiches last year and also donated several bags of clothing.

Sacred Heart students were honoured for a third year. Their students made more than 5,500 sandwiches last year and also volunteered in our soup kitchen.

Congratulations to Sacred Heart and St. Francis of Assisi. We appreciate very much the effort you made to help us care for Ottawa's homeless men and women.

This year is shaping up to be another banner year. We're barely a month into the school year and several schools have asked about tours and presentations while others have already indicated they are doing food drives in time for Thanksgiving.

Back to school

There were lots of signs today that despite the hot weather, the unofficial start to fall is here. Today was the first day of school for many elementary and high school students. University students are also back in town with many starting a new year of classes tomorrow.

Back to school season is also a special time for us. It's an opportunity to reconnect with students and schools after a much deserved summer break. Every year, hundreds of students help us out by making sandwiches, holding food drives or collecting clothes for the 1,600 men and women we take care of every day.

Many more will come to visit and take a tour of our soup kitchen and clothing program. They will come to listen to our frontline workers and find out firsthand the work we do. Some of them will become volunteers later in the year, We also look forward to getting out to as many schools as we can this year.

Students are out future and we hope that future is one that involves giving back to the community. It can start here at Shepherds of Good Hope. Best of luck this school year and we hope to see as many of you as possible.

If you would like more information on how to book a guest speaker or to take a tour, please contact me at asilverman@shepherdsofgoodhope.com or 613-789-8210, ext. 247.

Homelessness happens to students

I was reading an interesting article today about how homelessness can happen to students. Here's the link if you would like to read the story.

A lot of people wouldn't know this but every year, we do have a couple of university students who have to rely on our shelter because they've become homeless. (This year we have seven students). Normally, these students are part of the Worker Program.

The Worker Program is aimed at our homeless clients who are working part-time or full-time but are homeless for one reason or another. It's also for people who are homeless but have a strong desire to find work and need our help to accomplish that goal. As well as working with clients in school, the program will also help someone who is homeless and wants to return to school.

Understandably, shelters can be busy places. When you're trying to hold down a job, find housing or study, the shelter might not always be the best place for you. So what the Worker Program does is give those people a separate area to sleep. They can come and go based on their schedules. We make sure the participants have access to a computer. They get boxed lunches from the soup kitchen. But the real key to the program is the case management worker. That person creates a program for every participant. It's based on their needs. Typically, it involves financial literacy and how to budget. But it might include other things like how to deal with shift work, how to balance your studies while saving your money. That case management worker is there to do whatever he/she can to help the client meet their goals.

No student should be homeless, but Shepherds of Good Hope is there if a student needs us. But we can't help these students without your help. When you make a donation to Shepherds of Good Hope, you help us ensure that people and students who are homeless get the help they need to have a life of dignity, and to focus on a brighter future.

Please consider making a donation by clicking on the donate now link.

Another school year is almost over

It's hard to believe we're almost at the end of June. For a lot of Ottawa students, it can't some soon enough. This week will mark the last official week of school for many.

I want to wish everyone a safe and fun-filled summer. During the year, we get hundreds of students in dozens of schools who help us out. Some run food drives, others make sandwiches, groups come to the kitchen to help us prep the noon meal. Recently we had an elementary school raise more than $1,200 for us.

When you're in school, it's not always obvious as to why getting a solid education is important. You'll understand it one day. But there's more to education than classes and textbooks. When schools make the decision to get their students involved in fundraising or volunteerism, they're not just creating a good student. They're creating a well-rounded person who will hopefully continue with the spirit of giving when they become an adult.

I believe part of being a responsible person is giving back to help those people who have so little. One of our most important jobs is to look after one another. Naturally our families are most important to us. They are the ones we want to look after. But we must never forget those vulnerable people who don't get the help they need. They need our help, too.

Who is there to help those people? The Shepherds of Good Hope is there but organizations like ours cannot do it alone. We need volunteers, we need people to donate. And that's why it's so important that students get exposed to volunteerism, so that one day they will carry on the responsibility of looking after those who have so little.

For those of you graduating this year, I wish you the best. For those of you who are back in class in two months (yes, two months!), I look forward to connecting with you again. Your generosity always inspires me.

The kids are all right

We’ve always heard the axiom “Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders.” Or we’ve heard some variation of that. And sometimes when it’s said in a room full of adults, there’s a bit of good-nature eye rolling when we think of what today’s youth is getting up to, the music they listen to and the activities that preoccupy their time. It happened to us when we were young, too.

But I can tell you from experience there are thousands of kids across the city who are going to be great leaders one day. In fact, they are already taking the lead.

Recently, the elementary students at St. Thomas More School made 300 sandwiches for the Shepherds of Good Hope. They also collected three crates of canned goods. That’s well over 100 cans of food that we can use in our soup kitchen or in our twice-a-week food bank. For the hundreds of men and women who rely on a good meal at the Shepherds, there is nothing better than a freshly homemade sandwich at lunch or in the evening when people drop in.

As students get ready to enter their final month of school, I want to thank all of the students who took the time this year with their school to donate sandwiches, goods, and most importantly, their time.

With students like these, I have a lot of faith in our future leaders.