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" Psalm 82...Defend the cause of the weak and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy. Deliver them from the hands of the wicked". |
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" Real stories about real people you are helping...
That is what I had promised to you
in my last issue of Life on The Street (May,2004). Unfortunately,
not every story on the street has a happy ending. It saddens me
to tell you that we are planning a memorial service at Knox Presbyterian
Church in early November for two street youth who passed away
this summer. Both were homeless and had been on the street for
several years. Both were in their early twenties. Both had been
regularily coming to the Knox Out of the Cold program each winter.
Both died of drug overdose. The first to pass away, in May, was
Melissa, also known on the street as Smurf. The second we lost
was Richard, in July, who you might have seen, with his proud
Mohawk haircut, selling squeegee at the corner of Spadina and
Queen. We hope the memorial service at Knox will help their friends
find closure and healing and, for all of us, a time to cry out
in prayer, "Why God?, Why?"
The sad news doesn't end there. One of the men who used to be a resident at the Shepherd's House in Brampton, where we have been running a breakfast program Friday mornings, has also died. There was a fight in a room on Queen Street in Brampton between two men the night of June 7th. Rocco Tomasone, who had lived at the Shepherd's House until shortly before that night, died of his wounds. A Brampton man has been charged with second degree murder. I want to take some time to share with you, my friends and faithful supporters, a little about the emotions these deaths have evoked and also to present some factual information to put these tragedies in perspective.
Not every story has a happy ending
Perhaps some of us have become hardened to hearing reports of death on the streets, especially from drug overdoses among addicts. Perhaps some of us feel little compassion and judge those who die as receiving the expected consequences of their own poor choices. Still others are saddened and seek the answer, why? Not many of us even understand the magnitude of the problem, or why my newsletter this month, titled Life on the Streets, deals with death this month.
The danger faced by people living on the street is undeniable but there is a tendency for the average person to assume that the appropriate measures are being implemented by the government to alleviate the situation. There has been a very insightful research paper authored by Dr. Stephen Hwang of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. He is a researcher and member of St. Michael's Hospital's Inner City Health Program. It's the only program of its kind in Canada dedicated to serving the needs of the homeless and poor inner city residents. Dr. Hwang practices internal medicine in the general surgical wards at St. Mike's and is also the doctor on staff at Seaton House, Canada's largest men's emergency shelter. The report, Mortality Among Men Using Homeless Shelters in Toronto, Ontario, appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Assoc'n on April 26, 2000. Considering the disturbing data presented it garnered little editorial attention in the press.
The report was undertaken to compare mortality rates between the homeless in Toronto and U. S. cities. The encouraging results showed that the risk of death was significantly lower for homeless men living in Toronto than for those in the U.S. Major contributing factors cited for this were: Canada's universal health care system, higher survival rates in HIV / AIDS patients and much lower incidence of homicides among the homeless compared to the U.S. (this is of little comfort to the late Rocco Tomasone).
A warning cry, however, is raised by the data reported for the homeless men in Toronto.
The study also revealed unsettling data regarding cause of death. The four leading causes among men 18-24 were:
The leading types of accidents were falls from stairways or buildings. Poisonings include overdose of drugs and alchohol. In almost one in five deaths, the cause is listed as "unknown". On average then, mortality rates on the street in Toronto are 5 times higher than the general population. Tragically, street youth in Toronto are almost eight and a half times more likely to die than you or I.
' Homeless persons suffer from a high prevalance of physical disease, mental illness and substance abuse... exposure to the elements means an increased risk of infections like tuberculosis and H.I.V.,...access to healthcare is often suboptimal. Homeless persons also suffer severe poverty and often come from disadvantaged minority communities, factors independantly associated with poor health.' Dr. Stephen Hwang, JAMA.
If you consider for a moment when a young person dies at a local high school, witness the TV reports, the community outpouring of grief and the dispatching of trauma counselling teams for the student body. Compare this to the silent suffering of the street youth in Toronto, with little or no public consolation.
How does our ministry at Ekklesia - Project 417 address the root issues of homelessness, especially among young people? Can we really reduce the number of needless deaths?
Ekklesia's Executive Director, Joe Elkerton, has said many times when discussing drug and alchohol abuse among homeless people that,"they are self-medicating, trying to kill the pain they are feeling". It is similar to how we try to find better medication for migraine. Instead, we need to understand the cause of the pain. Among street youth, the most common reason for leaving home and the pain they suffer is abuse of some sort, whether emotional, psychological, physical, or sexual.
Our ministry at Ekklesia - Project417 is about re-building trust. We want to seek those who are broken, not look for something to fix. When we then confront the brokenness, we want to show compassion, just as Christ had compassion for us.
Henri Nouwen, in his book "Out of Solitude", explores compassion and illustrates the tension between curing and caring:
"Our tendency is to run away from the painful realities or to try to change them as soon as possible. But cure without care makes us into rulers, controllers, manipulators... Cure without care makes us preoccupied with quick changes, impatient and unwilling to share each other's burden. And so cure can often become offending instead of liberating. It is therefore not so strange that cure is not seldom refused by people in need...To care means first of all to empty our own cup and to allow the other to come close to us. It means to take away the many barriers which prevent us from entering into communion with the other".
It is through compassion and caring that we witness to the love of Christ, not just to those we help, but to the world at large. It is only through love and caring, which the King James version of the Bible translated as "charity", that we may earn the trust and respect of those in need and the opportunity for the word of God to work with his Spirit to bring healing.
How can this type of caring be put into effect for the ordinary person? The simplest way to show you care is to care in the simplest way! Just listening, instead of talking. Helping with simple tasks - preparing a meal, serving a meal, sharing a meal. Going for a walk and saying hello. Singing a song, joining in a game, just being there is all the difference.
Make the time to volunteer...
At Ekklesia -Project417 we are pleased to offer this experience to those who make the time to volunteer. I urge you to consider joining one of three programs this fall and winter:
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Let it be as Jesus said,"I have come in order that they might have life, life in all its fullness".John 10:10 TEV |
Sources:
1. JAMA, Mortality Among Men Using Homeless Shelters in Toronto, Ontario,
Dr. Stephen W. Hwang, April 26, 2000, Vol. 283, No.16
2. Ken Kraybill poem, This Work, Healing Hands ,Vol. 6, No.2 Feb., 2002
3. Out of Solitude, Henri J. M. Nouwen, Ave Maria Press [1974]
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"The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest". Isaiah 32:17-18 NIV |
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September, 2004 From the desk of Joe: Dear Friends, It seems hard to believe that almost six months have passed since the last time I wrote you, but God has really challenged us this summer and his blessings have been many. He has really shown us how he is moving the hearts of many with a burden to help the homeless and people living in crisis. We were blessed by the hearts and hands and feet of many volunteers. We saw the righteousness that comes from Christ working in their lives through selfless acts of servanthood. The prophet Isaiah told us about the effect of this pouring out of the Spirit of God: We were delighted once again to work closely with the Center for Student Missions (CSM). The CSM staff, lead by their new director, Jennifer Reimer, were truly committed to being examples of compassion and caring as they hosted exhuberant teams of youth. We also hosted enthusiastic teams from Urban Promise. Added to them were our faithful local church groups and some new volunteer teams who located us on the internet at www.project417.com . We have lead more than 1,200 volunteers on sandwich runs delivering thousands of nutritious bag lunches to the homeless - for some of them, the only meal of the day. Much more important than this was the blossoming of our relational
ministry to the street people. Our groups became an important
part of the street people's day. They began looking forward to
seeing our staff and the groups and having friendly conversations
- many about Jesus and the hope for life transformation. Please
pray for the continued development and growth of the Sandwich
Run ministry. Pray for a renewed spirit of co-operation with
the new Toronto mayor, the Honourable David Miller, the newly
elected council and city staff involved in homelessness relief
programs. As we look to the fall season we will continue assisting the Knox Out of the Cold program for street youth aged 25 and under, organizing our Church Family Suppers, helping at the Shepherd's House with a weekly breakfast, as well as developing a program for the Hope Centre Drop-in at Bramalea City Centre. We still plan to launch a Not-for-Profit training and skills development program to assist people living in crisis to become self-sufficient. We're also pleased to announce that once again we have five placement students from the Sheridan College Social Service Worker program at both the Oakville and Brampton campuses. They will be working with us until next April. At the Knox Out of The Cold, Project417 has been asked by the Knox team to assume greater involvement in leadership of the Tuesday and Wednesday nite volunteer teams. The program opens November 2nd and runs until April. The street youth arrive at 6:30 pm when they are served a delicious hot meal, followed by activity time until 10:00 pm. Then the youth bed down for the night in the gym and are served a hot breakfast before leaving the next morning. I find great satisfaction in this ministry which we developed for Knox eight years ago. Street youth like Crystal and Sketch tell us they wish it could run year round. We hope to enlist at least 5 churches to host our Family Supper program for the needy over the next 10 months to ensure at least one night per month of outreach and fellowship for families living in crisis. We will be approaching several Brampton churches that have been hosts in the past and we are always looking for new churches to partner with us in this ministry in all areas of the GTA. The Shepherd's House Breakfast program is in need of a core group of volunteers to assist with preparing and serving the meal, and fellowshipping with the residents. Pray for the Shepherd's House as they face their own community support and organizational challenges and needed repairs and upgrades to the facilty or possible re-location. Brampton has also been hard hit by the announcement of the closing of the Knights' Table (operated by Knights of Columbus). It serves meals to between 150-200 needy people daily. This essential service is in need of a new facilty in a location accessible to the homeless. This will also mean that the street outreach work of Project417 in Brampton will likely have to increase to meet the needs of many hungry people. The needs of Project417 are critical at the present time more than ever. Please consider sending a financial gift right away to provide for these urgent and overdue expenses: Office Expenses $500/mo Consider supporting our faith missionaries on a monthly basis so they can continue in their vital staff roles and expand our presence on the streets. Please pray for the ministries and how best you may become a support partner, either as a volunteer, or by financial gifts. All financial gifts are tax deductible. If you require more information about Project417 feel free contact me at 416-910-1861, through our website www.project417.com or email me at elkerton@project417.com. Thank you for your continued faithful support.
Joe Elkerton Founder / Executive Director Project417 - Ekklesia Inner City Ministries |
MISSION STATEMENT
We exist to be the facilitators of healing, personal development and spiritual growth within the Christian context to the homeless and socially isolated people.
THE VISION
To create a community which is accessible to all who are in need. To develop and implement programs and outreach ministries which seek to enable people to move into healthier lifestyles.
CORE VALUES
We believe that all people are created and loved by God.We believe that people have priority over money, structures, systems and other institutions.We must act in ways that respect the dignity, uniqueness and intrinsic worth of every person.We will celebrate the richness of diversity in all humanity.
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