 As five o’clock commuters make the long and winding drive through downtown, many will spot another line, this one circling a large brick building on Princess Street. A hot meal, a real bed, a dry pair of socks, a friendly face: the promise of all these things keeps men and women waiting patiently outside the Siloam Mission each day.
A Christian humanitarian organization run by a dedicated staff of 52 and a large roster of community volunteers, Siloam Mission is a connecting point between the city’s less fortunate and compassionate Winnipeggers ready to help. While the mission is known to most for its Hannah’s Place Emergency Shelter, which recently expanded to 90 beds, and its daily hot meal program (it has served nearly 170,000 meals in the last year alone), it also offers a variety of other unique services and supports.
The list includes computer literacy programs and an employment-training program called MOST, or, Mission: Off the Street Team. A partnership between Siloam and the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ, MOST offers for-pay employment for homeless men and women. Teams start each workday with a hot meal, a short devotion and a discussion about the day’s activities. They then suit up in their MOST uniforms and head out through the area to work on cleaning sidewalks, collecting litter, shoveling snow and other much-needed projects. “Our programming helps them move ahead,” says COO Garth Reesor. “If they can work full time then they can have a chance to move off the street.”
 Theresa Saunders, director of patron services, knows the roadblocks that face her patrons, from illiteracy, to drug addiction, to something as simple as not having proper identification. But she also wants her fellow downtowners to know that there are plenty of working folks visiting Siloam. “We have single parents, couples on minimum wage and guys who do temp jobs that just don’t have enough money to cover all the basic essentials,” she explains. “We also have people with mental illness, people who have fallen through the cracks, who can come here to our health centre and get on some regular medication.”
The Saul Sair Health Centre is the newest addition to Siloam’s 58,000-square-foot space. Opened this past August thanks to a $1-million gift from the estate of late Winnipeg pharmacist Saul Sair, it is run by nurse practitioner Rebekah Peters and is staffed by a rotating roster of local doctors, as well as volunteer chiropractors and foot care specialists.
Another kind of healing also happens at the mission, on Friday and Saturday mornings, as people file in to Alexandra Hayes’ art class. Here they discover new talents while benefiting from the kind of healing that comes from pure creative expression. Hayes, herself a painter and dancer, leads students through drawing and painting classes each week as this unique program, which recently produced its first calendar, continues to grow.
As Siloam is a Christian agency, there is a spiritual aspect to everything that happens there. “We do Bible study and a sharing circle, which gives people a chance to talk about their life and struggles,” says Saunders. “It creates a family environment.” This is especially important for those patrons who are no longer connected to their families. “Working here has made me very aware of what a difference having an extended family makes,” says Reesor. “I know that if I were in trouble, I would have family to stay with or borrow money from, but many people don’t have that resource.”
For those of us who see Siloam Mission through our car windows, not by walking through its front door, we might feel like the people who are lined up at 5 p.m., four hours before dinner is served, add nothing positive to our downtown. Reesor hopes to change our minds, and hearts. “Our patrons are an extension of the community,” he offers. “If we treat them with dignity they become more conscious of how they act outside our walls. If they have a higher self-esteem, we raise the bar for them and that affects the whole community.” |
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Wed, Jul. 30th
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