New Year's resolutions

We're almost two weeks into 2016 and you've either already dropped your New Year's resolutions or you're on your way to forming some new habits.

I hope one of those habits is to become more involved in charitable giving. We have a lot to be thankful for in the nation's capital. But there are people who are hurting every day. They have great potential but they are struggling at this point in their lives.

We see them every day. They are some of Ottawa's most vulnerable men and women. They rely on us for food, shelter and clothing. Over the years, Shepherds of Good Hope has implemented many innovative programs and developed others with partners. The goal of each and every one is to address the specific needs of the homeless population so that we can find housing more quickly for them.

So how can you help with a New Year's resolution? Here are some ideas. I'd love to hear some of yours.

Coffee drinkers: Skip one coffee a week. At the end of the month, you have $10 that you can donate. Yes, your monthly donation can be $10 a month.

Make it a team effort: A lot of people will join fundraising campaigns at their workplace. The most common type of fundraiser is a casual dress day on Fridays. Workers pay $1 or $2 to wear jeans on a Friday. Depending on the size of your workplace, you might have hundreds of dollars to donate at the end of the month.

Make it a family affair: Teaching your kids the importance of helping those less fortunate is important and sets them up to be charitable in the future. Go through your closets and donate clothes that you know you're not going to wear any more. Collect change in a jar and donate it monthly.

Volunteer: There are many ways to give. As a fundraiser, of course, I'm a big supporter of financial donations. We make your dollar do a lot here at Shepherds of Good Hope. But volunteering is also very important to us. We have more than 400 volunteers helping us deliver programs and services, We couldn't do what we without them. As a volunteer, you can see the impact you are having on people.

Take a tour: I've always said that taking a tour of our facilities is the best way to see first hand the impact your donation has on so many people. Once people see the work we do, that we are more than a soup kitchen, many are inspired to give.

If you would like to talk more about how you can help Ottawa's homeless population, please don't hesitate to contact me. Phone: 613-789-8210, ext. 247. Email: asilverman@shepherdsofgoodhope.com

To make a donation, click here.
For volunteer opportunities, click here.

Investors Group volunteers in the kitchen

For many years Investors Group has made it a point of volunteering in our Soup Kitchen. They were here again today. What a great looking bunch of volunteers in bright and early to help prepare our daily meal.

I want to thank everyone for coming out again this year and volunteering at a special time of the year.

If you're interested in group volunteering, please check out our volunteer page.

What motivates me to raise funds

On Tuesday, I was part of a women-in-leadership conference. One of the stories I shared with the audience was my motivation behind why I do what I do at Shepherds of Good Hope Foundation. For those of you who know me, you know what I do. I ask you for money because I believe in what we do at Shepherds of Good Hope.

Regardless of where I have worked, I have always filled my spare time with volunteer work. But when I came to Shepherds of Good Hope and sat at my desk for the first time, I thought, what now? What do I do next?

I knew I had to really learn about the people I was going to serve. So I made a decision to spend a night at the women’s shelter. I can honestly tell you it changed my life. One of my motivations was to hear the other women talk to me as if I was one of them.

I remember sitting in the TV room. I talked to a woman who had been there for three months. She had come from a small town. The problem is once you get in, you can’t get out and that’s all the motivation I needed to raise as much money as I can every day to help these people, to help these people find their direction in their lives. It’s one conversation that made me look at things very, very differently.

The reality is it could happen to anyone of us. I remember as I walked across the street from my office to the shelter building the angst I felt. This could really happen. I could lose my job. I could lose my home. I could lose everything I have. Just like these people on the street. And all I can say is they are people just like us and they need help. Thank God Shepherds of Good Hope has all of these wonderful programs to help them.

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To help the men and women at Shepherds of Good Hope, please consider making a donation.

Volunteer for special holidays

A lot of us think about volunteering but one of the reasons some people don't follow through is the time commitment, or what they perceive to be the time commitment.

The good news is that Shepherds of Good Hopes has volunteer opportunities that allow for a lot of flexibility. And this week, we started to highlight one of those opportunities.

On our website under the volunteer section, we're advertising for volunteers who only want to volunteer for special holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving or Easter. Those are big days for us. We've even created a special form you can fill out online if you're interested.

I think this is a great opportunity for people who are thinking about volunteering but don't know if they can commit to a regular volunteer shift. By volunteering for a special holiday, you get an opportunity to come in, see what we do, and help serve the clients. Coming in for a one-time event might be the thing that leads you to a rewarding life of volunteering. It also helps us, but more importantly, it helps the 1,600 men and women who rely on us every day.

If you want more information about volunteering at Shepherds of Good Hope, please contact our Volunteer Manager Sue Alcott at salcott@shepherdsofgoodhope.com.

Volunteer appreciation barbecue

 It was a great day Saturday to hold a barbecue.

This time, the volunteers got to be in front of the serving line instead of behind it. It was our chance to thank the many volunteers who donate hours and hours to our organization. Without them, Shepherds of Good Hope would not be able to deliver the services we do to Ottawa's homeless population.

Did you know that there are more than 400 volunteers with us? They are everywhere from the soup kitchen, the food and clothing program, at every one of our facilities, They work in the community gardens, they teach literacy, they hold yoga classes, they do karaoke. I could blog every day for a month and still not touch on every activity volunteers are involved in.

Sue Alcott, our manager of volunteers, and Stephanie Brazolot, our volunteer coordinator, did a great job organizing the barbecue. A thank you also goes out to the staff members who turned out to help serve the food.

Volunteering at Shepherds is a special thing. You are working with some of the most in-need men and women in the city. You get to meet lots of people with similar interests and it's no surprise that volunteers at Shepherds develop life-long friendships with each other.

If you're interested in volunteering, please check out our volunteer page.

Ottawa RedBlacks serve lunch

It was a special Friday for the men and women who turned up at the soup kitchen for lunch.

Serving lunch were four Ottawa RedBlacks players. A big thank you to the RedBlacks and to players Brandyn Thompson, Ettore "ET" Lattanzio, Jordan Verdone and Marcus Henry. Marcus' wife Stephanie was also on hand to greet the men and women coming through the door while cheer team member Ana Cruz had her own fan section at one of the tables in the dining room.

This is the second year the Ottawa RedBlacks have visited Shepherds of Good Hope. This is a team that knows the meaning of community and I really appreciate the time they took to be with us on their bye week.

When the clients showed up, they knew it wasn't the regular crew of volunteers. But as the players introduced themselves, people got pretty excited. There were a few Go RedBlacks Go chants. After lunch, they graciously met with some of the clients, signing autographs and having their pictures taken.

From left to right in the back: Anna Silverman, Executive Director of Shepherds of Good Hope Foundation, Mark Sluban, Community Events Specialist Ottawa RedBlacks, Jordan Verdone, Marcus Henry. Seated are Ettore "ET" Lattanzio and Brandyn Thompson

A good day at the Good Day Workshop

Last week I stopped in at the Good Day Workshop at the Bronson Centre.

Run by Shepherds of Good Hope, the GDW has been around for almost 20 years. It's probably one of Ottawa's best kept secrets. The participants in the program, with the help of volunteers and a couple of staffers, refinish furniture. (They also make wood products but that's for a future blog post).

It might be an old kitchen chair, a wooden desk, a bookshelf or a hutch that someone's grandmother gave them. Whatever it is, it has sentimental value to the people who bring it in. Some of it is in pretty bad shape. Our participants bring it back to life.

When I was there, I saw a little table. It had a beautiful finish. The legs had wonderful detail. It was obvious this was an old table and meant something to someone. Luckily enough, I got to meet the man who owned the table when he showed up to take it home. He was ecstatic at how the table turned out. The table had been in his wife's family for a long time. All the scuffs and scratches had been repaired and the detail in the wood had been cleaned up. It was a night and day transformation.

He admitted he had never heard of GDW until a friend mentioned us. He was impressed not only with the quality of the work, but also with how this type of enterprise helps so many people. He felt good that he was able to get a sentimental piece of furniture refinished, to see it restored to its true beauty, but he also felt good about how GDW helps people who are struggling. Many of the participants don't have easy access to jobs. They might have a physical disability or a mental illness and/or suffer from an addiction.

The philosophy of the program is simple. Every day for each participant should be a good day. What I saw that day left not doubt that it was a good day for everyone.

But we do need help. We are looking for volunteers who have wood working experience. If you're interested, or you know someone who has those skills, please contact us. If you want to know more about the Good Day Workshop, please visit the program page. You can also reach me at 613-789-8210, Ext. 247 or at asilverman@shepherdsofgoodhope.com.

Here are some photos from the Good Day Workshop.

Dancing for a good cause

On Saturday I had the honour to attend a dance repertoire of Bharat Natyam. The event, presented by Jeevam Jyoti Productions, was held at the Kailash Mittal Theatre at Carleton University. The dance company is from California and they are travelling to different cities.

It was a wonderful evening and Keshav Goel, one of the young people involved in the event, raised $3,7450 for Shepherds of Good Hope. Thank you so much. We appreciate all the hard work everyone put in to ensure the event was a success.

Before the dance began, I had a chance to talk to the audience about the work we do at Shepherds of Good Hope. I spoke briefly to the audience after showing them a video about our organization. I also had the chance to award some certificates to people who regularly volunteer at Shepherds of Good Hope. We rely on hundreds of volunteers to help us provide services to some of the most in-need men and women in Ottawa.

Finally, thank you to Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi for his last-minute sweetening of the fundraising pot. It was great to see the MPP there and to have his support.

The value of seniors

Last week, I blogged a couple of times about the value of getting young people involved in philanthropy and how one eight-year-old girl collects food and other items for Shepherds of Good Hope.

Today, I want to talk about the other end of the age spectrum -- seniors.

We are blessed to have many volunteers at Shepherds of Good Hope. Our Volunteer Manager Sue Alcott and Volunteer Coordinator Stephanie Brazolot do a fantastic job of finding volunteers, matching them up with the proper services and scheduling them in for our various programs.

We have many seniors who volunteer and it isn't just because they're retired and have the time. That's part of it for some, of course. But seniors simply have more life experience. Those of us who are older know what it's like to fall on hard times now and again. Thankfully, for most of us, hard times didn't mean having to sleep in a shelter or eat in a soup kitchen. But we're smart enough to know that we could have easily been the person on the other side of the serving line in the soup kitchen.

According to research in the U.S., a couple of years ago, senior volunteering is at a 10-year high. And the percentage of volunteers who are seniors has been increasing over the last decade. One in three senior volunteers is over the age of 55. It makes sense. Our largest demographic, the boomers, are starting to enter their golden years.

When we talk to our volunteers, seniors of younger, there are always a few common answers. People simply want to give back. You hear that over and over and yet it's the easiest way to explain why people choose to volunteer. People recognize how fortunate they are and want to do something good in the world for those people who are not so fortunate.

Another common thread is that volunteering is rewarding, it can be fun, and you meet people who obviously share the same concerns, the same will to make a difference.

Every day when I walk into our main building, I see seniors doing their part. Without them, it would be a lot more difficult for us to deliver the services to Ottawa's most vulnerable men and women.

If you would like to know more about our volunteer opportunities, check out our volunteer page. Not only are current volunteer needs listed, but you'll also find some handy contact information.

Dragon Boat Festival raises funds for charity

It was another great year for the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. And that means five great local charities are going to get some significant funds to help their clients.

I want to thank the organizers for selecting Shepherds of Good Hope as one of the five charities. This is our second year as part of the festival. Our volunteers were out there Friday night and the weekend to serve food at the VIP area. We were also taking lots of photos Friday night when the event kicked off.

Events like the Dragon Boat Festival are a great way to have fun and to participate for a good cause. It's a free event and after the races were finished, throngs of people sat on the grassy hill to the left of the stage to take in the great bands each night.

Congratulations to everyone!

A piano for The Oaks

Lots of people donate items to us. Most times we're looking for food, clothing, toiletries -- that sort of thing.

It's very rare to get a piano. But that's exactly what we got recently. And it was donated to us by one of our longtime volunteers, Andrew.

It took a few days to find some people who could move the piano for us. It's a little heavier than a crate of food. But a week ago, it finally moved into its new home. It's a great addition for The Oaks. Now we just need someone to play it.

If you would like to volunteer by visiting The Oaks and banging out a few tunes, we would love to hear from you. We know the men and women at The Oaks would enjoy a show. Come on over and tickle the ivories.

To volunteer, check out our volunteer page or you can call Stephanie, our volunteer coordinator, at 613-789-8210, ext. 239.