Hope? Food For Thought

"Hope": Photo Credit Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2009

Where There's Hope...

Which organization has been willing to run counter to conventional wisdom, including other religious organizations?

“Leadership Secrets of the Salvation Army” (Robert A. Watson & Ben Brown): “We have always brought a message of inclusion and compassion to people used to being excluded and judged.”

Excluded and judged... Let's go behind the obvious...

What’s it like to be a homeless addict?

A homeless addict requires not only help in overcoming her addictions. She needs immediate housing. And she needs assistance in coming up with a long-range plan for a place to live once she’s clean.

She’s homeless because she doesn’t have any money. And she doesn’t have any money because she has no job and, more than likely, little experience in managing what money she’s made in the past. Even when she’s free of drugs, she may have trouble finding a job with a future without transportation. And without suitable clothes, she’ll be uncomfortable in interviews and on the job. Recognizing all those needs puts us (The Salvation Army) in the housing, job training, life skills counselling, transportation and clothing businesses.

What about her family? Perhaps she’s a single parent with children she can’t leave unattended while she works. And maybe her longtime addictions have inhibited her development as a parent and a housekeeper.

She might not know how to prepare healthy food for her family or to assume the most basic responsibilities of nurturing her children’s intellectual, emotional and spiritual growth. Understanding those dilemmas requires us (The Salvation Army) to get into daycare, after school recreation, healthcare counselling and parenting instruction.

Each of those hurdles before a recovering addict can be an insurmountable barrier. Each is an invitation to fail, to despair at that failure, and then to escape to drugs.

Just about every problem with which we struggle festers an atmosphere where nothing seems to matter, where lives seem purposeless and where the ability to influence changes seems so limited to be meaningless. People feel trapped, manipulated by powers beyond their control.

Is there an antidote? So the task really is about more than just treating a chemical dependency or providing housing for the homeless or feeding the hungry. It’s about salvaging and nourishing hope. Hope is the antidote for cynicism and despair. And you don’t have to be homeless or addicted to drugs to know you need something to combat that poison.

Source: Leadership Secrets of the Salvation Army, pages 39-40. Eaglet Publishing 2001.
With thanks to Dr. Peter Legge, CAPS


The Thunder Bay Perspective:

One food bank (St. Agnes) indicated this week that in a comparison of demand for 2007 as opposed to 2008, the numbers were up 54%. Redwood Opportunities Centre, the second largest food bank in Thunder Bay compared January-March 2007 with January-March 2008 and the increase was 57%.

In Thunder Bay:

More working poor are seeking assistance and many of the people coming to food banks are there for the first time. The very people who used to donate to food banks are now coming for assistance. Those on EI from forestry have run out of support. Some have turned to OW and many are now underemployed.

• See The Quality of Life Report distributed to you in March for more recent statistics.



• See the Lakehead Social Planning Council Website for more resources and information:
  http://www.lspc.ca/



• See Northern Ontario Growth Plan and the Rosehart Report: http://www.mndm.gov.on.ca/nordev/documents/noef/REPORT_FEB2008_e.pdf

Next Week?

We will issue a Challenge to you and your family... perhaps a different experience. Let me know if you decide to go for it.

In the meantime, how does the global economic situation affect the poor and the homeless...and you? Food for thought....talk about it...

Yours in hope,
Maggie