Hello SCO supporters!  We'd like to invite you to participate in our first ever Amazing "Car" Race!
This is going to be a super fun fundraiser that gives the participant a little taste of what it's like for someone who lives out of their car.
The race will start on October 1 at 6:30pm.  Starting point is at 345 Loewen Blvd, west side parking lot.
There are two ways to play.  The family friendly race ends at 11pm so if you are participating as a family group and do not want to spend the night sleeping in your car with youngsters you can still join in the fun!  The hardcore race ends at 6am the next morning.  You will be sleeping in your car!

Here's how it works:
The race is set up similar to the Amazing Race.  There are stations spread out across Steinbach and challenges to complete along the way to each station.

1. Partner with someone or put a team together.  You can play as an individual too if you like.  Encourage your friends, family and co workers to put a team together to play.

2. Call Charlene at 204-380-2692 or stop by Steinbach Community Outreach at 345 Loewen Blvd. Monday to Friday 9 - 4 to pick up your pledge sheet.

3. Collect pledges during the month of September in support of Steinbach Community Outreach.  Whether you go door to door or bug your family, friends and coworkers... encourage your friends and neighbors to donate!  We will issue a tax receipt for anything over $20.

4. The race is on October 1, 2021 Meet at 345 Loewen Blvd in the west side parking lot at 6:30pm to hand in your pledges and collect your scorecard.

5.  7pm:  Ready, set, go! There will be 3 stations.  You will have 45 minutes to get to the next station.  On the way to the next station you will be given a challenge to complete.  These challenges are based on overcoming barriers our clients face every day.  They are designed to put you in the shoes of a person who is homeless and is living out of their car.  The person or team who collects the most points wins the race!

How to collect points
First team to reach the station                                        100pts
Second team to reach the station                                  75pts
Third team to reach the station                                      50pts
If you complete the challenge between stations         100pts
If you have a child under 18 with you for the night     100pts
If you don't turn on your car at night                             100pts

6.  The family friendly race will end at 11pm when winners will be announced.  The hardcore racers will continue on until 6am the next morning when those winners will be announced.
For each race there will be prizes for the most points collected, the highest amount in dollars of pledges collected, the youngest person to participate and the oldest person to participate.

We would love to see as many people as possible participate either by running in the race or by pledging their support for someone in the race!  Please join us in this amazing event!

Hey Folks!  We are super excited to be the recipients of the Taste of Summer Charity BBQ today.  Come on down to the corner of Main and Lumber to show your support for the work we do at Steinbach Community Outreach.  You'll get a lunch and all funds raised will support the programs we run here at Outreach like helping people find housing, running Today House the homeless shelter, handing out food and hygiene hampers and any other support people may need.
​See you there! 

Several weeks ago we had 4 or 5 calls in the same day about a particular person in the hospital area.  Hilda, one of our advocates who was on call, went out to see if she could find him and see what we could do.

Randy's story begins in Alberta. (not his real name) We know that Randy got a ride from a well meaning lady who was travelling from the west back home to Manitoba.  It's unclear how these two connected or what Randy's motivations were for coming to Manitoba, but we do know he arrived with no ID and only the clothes on his back. With his medications not readily accessible Randy eventually found himself first at the Ste. Anne Hospital, and then the hospital in Steinbach. When his condition stabilized he was released. With no where to turn he set up camp in front of the hospital.

We often get calls about people who are strangers who are stranded in Steinbach.  When someone in unfortunate circumstances finds their way into town the easy thing to do is bring them to Winnipeg and drop them off at one of the shelters there.  However at Outreach there's quite a process when we help  stranded strangers. It's a process that can take anywhere from one afternoon to several weeks so we can ensure we are helping this person in the best way possible. The most important question in this process is "What do you want to happen and how can we help make that happen?" 

After a lengthy conversation with Randy he said he would return to his friend's house, which was quite a ways out of town; the woman who had brought him here.  Hilda tried to phone the friend multiple times but got no answer so he said he would go anyway and maybe by the time he got there she would be home.  Hilda also brought Randy some food, paid for his meds and called a cab to bring him back to his friend's place.

A couple of days later we had several calls again about Randy.  His friend had not let him stay so he had made his way back to town and was again camped in front of the hospital. Again we sat down with him and discussed various options.  He had spent a couple of nights in the hospital but was now sleeping rough so a plan was made to try Main Street Project. He was able to crash at someone's house that night and Irene drove him to Winnipeg the next morning.  Randy found Main Street Project overwhelming so he phoned the friend who had brought him to Manitoba and she came and picked him up and dropped him back in Steinbach.

Once again we had calls about Randy.  This was a gentleman who was truly stranded in a way that we had never seen anyone stranded before. He was getting good care at the hospital, but had nowhere to turn on his release.  We continued to try connecting with friends and family, including the woman who had brought him to Manitoba and finally connected with his sister.  He desperately wanted to get back to Alberta but with Covid travel restrictions and no ID, getting him there seemed nearly impossible.

In Randy's case he had a sister that was willing to pay for a plane ticket or bus ticket to get him home, but Randy had no ID and we do not have connections in Alberta to get copies of his ID.  We also know from experience that it takes up to 6 months to get new copies of ID for people.  Getting on a bus or plane without ID is not possible so that was not an option for Randy.

Picking someone up from afar and dropping them in Steinbach may seem like a good and helpful thing to do, because we have a very generous city, but often it does more harm than good.  It takes them away from resources they are already familiar with, like what day of the week the store tosses their expired food out, and the bank teller that recognizes him because he already lost his debit card 20 times this year and knows how to help him, or which restaurant will give him a free cup of coffee on a rainy day. He had really good benefits set up with EIA in Alberta to support him, but here in Manitoba he could not access those funds.

We had a team of 6 people coming up with ideas and options with Randy but there was really only one option that was viable.  To get him back to his sister in Alberta where his resources and support system were.  But how if you can't get on a bus or a plane? It wouldn't be responsible to send someone hitchhiking in the middle of a pandemic and even if he did want to hitchhike we doubted he would survive that journey.  There was only one thing to do. We would have to drive him.
Let me be clear here.  We are a local charity serving only Steinbach and surrounding areas.  The farthest we go is Winnipeg and then only if circumstances require it and if no other arrangements can be made.  We are not a bus service that transports people inter-provincially.  So, after several more days of making arrangements and checking restrictions, Irene and Tammy, our most experienced advocates, volunteered their time on a weekend and use of their own vehicle, in the middle of a pandemic when travel restrictions were at their tightest, to drive Randy back.  This is WAY above and beyond what we expect from our volunteers but it goes to show the level of dedication and commitment of our staff, and the amount of time and energy it takes to help a stranger who gets stranded on the streets in Steinbach, to a place where they feel supported both physically and mentally.

While most of us are gearing up for summer, we here at SCO are also thinking towards the fall.  As with many organizations we don't know what post pandemic programming will look like, but we are anticipating a greater need and hope to expand our drop in center hours.
If you are interested in joining a dynamic, committed team of volunteers we would love to chat with you. We are looking for people to help out at our drop in center handing out food and hygiene hampers, sorting through donations and connecting with our guests.  If you can spare a couple of hours a week just fill out a form or send us an email at steinbachoutreach@gmail.com and we will connect with you over the next couple of weeks.
We look forward to meeting you!

It's stinkin' hot outside these days folks!
Whenever we get extreme temperatures we get people coming in looking for a place to hang out and cool off.  At first we weren't sure how we would manage to accommodate this, with covid restrictions limiting the amount of people we can have in our space, so we were very pleased when we heard the most recent restrictions made exceptions for drop in centers to become cooling centers for people who are street involved.  We are also able to hand out bottles of water. Hooray! As long as our guests are able to stay 6 feet apart they can come in, cool off and rehydrate. 
As a drop in center we are one of the few places allowed to be open right now.  Restaurants are closed to people sitting inside, same with the library.  So on a hot day we get quite a few people popping in to cool off, use the wifi, and often sleep on one of our couches, because it's exhausting wandering the streets when it's +35 out there.  And every time someone comes in they ask for water.  So if anyone has any water bottles they can donate we would love to accept them and pass them out to the people who come in to use our drop in center as a place to cool off.
A case of water bottles only costs $2 to $3 dollars.  If you are able to add a case to your grocery shop this week and drop it off at 345 Loewen Blvd, (blue doors on the west side of the building) that would be fantastic! Our guests would certainly appreciate it.
The majority of our guests have to walk everywhere they go, so by the time they get to Outreach to get help with whatever they need help with, or to pick up their food, they are hot and parched from the long walk over.  We actually go through quite a few water bottles every day trying to keep people cool and safe.
So if you have any bottled water you can spare, we would love to pass it on to our guests.

 Calling all gardeners!  As you plant your garden this year consider planting a row with the intention of  donating whatever grows in that row to charity.  Designate one row as the SCO row and whatever goodies grow there, donate to Outreach this fall. Your $2 packet of seeds combined with a little bit of dirty knees and mud under your fingernails would really mean a lot to a family who doesn't otherwise have access to fresh fruits and vegetables.  

If you are planting with us in mind here's a list of our guests favorite garden veggies:

• potatoes
• corn on the cob
• carrots
• onions
• peas
• beans
• tomatoes
• lettuce
• berries - any kind of berries if you have extra!

We will accept any extra garden produce you have and pass them on to our guests in need.
The majority of our guests live in apartments and don't have garden space available to them. Yet everyone loves to snack on fresh vegetables when they can get their hands on them.  Because who doesn't love to participate in the abundance of a fall harvest?

Also, if you are clearing out last years produce and canned goods from your freezer and pantry shelves to make room for this year's harvest we will happily accept these goods as well.  Our guests love jams and preserves and our cooks use frozen veggies in the casseroles and soups they cook up for the people we serve.

So join us at the harvest table and help us fill the horn of plenty that we might share your abundant harvest with people in need. 

Many great things happen at Outreach but none of them would happen without the hard work and dedication of our volunteers.  Being a volunteer at Outreach is like joining a second family.  Everyone works together to help each other out; guests and volunteers alike. 

I'd like to introduce you to Deb, one of our newest volunteers.
Deb has been here for two months as an advocate.  An advocate helps our guests work through their problems.  Their problems could be things like getting on to social assistance, finding an affordable apartment, getting ID, and pretty much anything they need help with.
​
"I was inspired by a news article about the coffee boy who was concerned about the homeless in the cold and wanted to do something, so he set up a coffee stand for people waiting in line at Outreach.  I was sitting at home, during Covid and recently retired and thought this was something I would like to do with my daughter.  A couple of weeks later my daughter and I served coffee to people waiting in line outside at SCO.  I was so impressed with the warmth and welcoming atmosphere at Outreach and I felt like I wanted to become a part of it, make a difference, to help, to give back.  After that first day of working alongside Irene and Myra I really felt called to be here." ~Deb

There are many reasons people come to volunteer at SCO.  Quite a few of our volunteers are recently retired 55+ people who are looking to fill their time by giving back to the community.  A handful are young adults looking for work experience that is also self fulfilling.  A bunch of our volunteers are also our guests who are looking to give back to the place that has helped them out so much.

We have a lot of fun here at Outreach and learn many surprising things during our time here.
"What has surprised me the most is the high number of women in domestic violence situations who come to us and are homeless. Also the number of men and women with mental health challenges.  I expected the majority of guests to be homeless as a result of addictions, but this isn't the case.  Each person has a unique story that deserves to be heard." ~Deb

There are tons of jobs that volunteers help with at Outreach.  There are always donations that need sorting, food and hygiene hampers to hand out, food that needs to be made into casseroles, and furniture to be moved, but the most important job is simply connecting with our guests over a cup of coffee.  If you would like to come by and see what we do, meet our guests, and perhaps join our team of volunteers please send an email to Myra at steinbachoutreach@gmail.com.  We would love to connect with you!

The other day the gentleman who delivers our bread came in with our usual order.  As I collected our boxes of bread from him he explained he had met someone on his route this morning.  They had struck up a conversation and it was obvious the person was homeless.  So our delivery man said he knew of a place that could possibly help and offered the man a ride to our drop in centre.
The person who came through the doors was the quintessential picture of a homeless man.  He was tall and scruffy looking with an unkempt beard and two green reusable bags stuffed with all of his worldly belongings slung over his shoulder.  
I introduced myself and invited him to have a seat and warm up.  He placed his bags on floor within direct sight of where he was sitting and shared his story.
He was quite an interesting character.  At different points in the conversation he described himself as an inventor and a researcher of people.  He said the bread man had asked him if he was homeless, but he wasn't homeless, he was travelling.  He preferred to sleep rough in order to reduce his carbon footprint.  I asked him where he'd slept last night and he named a spot we were familiar with in the bushes next to the library. It's amazing to me how even out of towners have an instinct for finding the places in town to sleep to get out of the wind. The previous couple of nights he'd slept in other places familiar to us.  An entryway where the heat blew straight down on you and an atm vestibule.
He was headed from BC to Ontario where he would stop and see his sister before he decided where to go next.  On the way he wanted to interact with all the cultures and had come to Steinbach looking for Mennonites. He'd been in town for a few days but hadn't noticed any.  I explained that the Mennonites around here looked and acted just normal people every where else.  It wasn't like the old days of horse and buggy.  He looked a little disappointed but then said maybe he'd find some Amish on his travels.  I suggested he look around the Vita area south of here.
He stayed with us at the drop in center all day that day, mostly doing research on human behavior at our computer station by watching Youtube videos, music videos and reading articles online.  He had a habit of sucking the flavouring off of potato chips for his lunch and then discarding the soggy chips afterwards.  He also enjoyed a tin of meat with his meal when it was offered to him. He came back to the drop in center every day for about a week, watching the people come and go and visiting with our regulars, until one day he didn't.  We heard he was spotted south of Grunthal with his two large green bags hooked over his shoulder.  I like to think he was on his way to spot some Amish.
Every once in a while we get a person through here who is simply a traveler making their way across the country.  They always have an interesting story to share and a world view that makes one pause and assess their own point of view.  Is it sleeping rough or is it eliminating your carbon footprint?  Is it goofing off online or is it the study of human behaviour?

​Not everyone who comes through our doors is homeless.  In fact a large chunk of the people who come through our doors are working people who have homes but struggle to put food on the table.  They come in to get help with food, clothing, resumes, and a bunch of other things that have nothing to do with housing.
Last week I was speaking with DeeDee (not her real name) who had come in to pick up a food hamper.  DeeDee does work, but it’s very difficult to raise a family on one income with a minimum wage job.  She was saying that Tuesdays she eats at Soups On, every other Wednesday is Helping Hands and the alternate Wednesdays she has a co-worker who invites her over for supper, Thursdays she picks up food from Outreach and Fridays is Soups On again.  Saturday to Monday she makes do with whatever is left in the fridge.  
The simple fact is that the majority of the people who access our services survive this way.  They are choosing between buying their groceries or paying their hydro bill each month.
The other day I was speaking with Nancy (also not her real name).  She comes in every couple of weeks to file her report for EI/CERB online because she doesn’t have internet access at home.  Both DeeDee and Nancy have been laid off of work due to covid and both of them said they make more on CERB than they did working.  They have been putting that extra money towards paying off debts and are finally able to pay all of their bills and still have a some left over for the extra groceries they need to get through the week.
Neither of them is at ease though. Both of them realize they will owe money at tax time.  It was quite an adjustment for them when they started collecting CERB.  At first, to realize that they didn’t have to scrimp and count every dime, and that they could pay all of their bills as they were due was a huge mental 180 for them.  When you see that big CERB payment in your bank account that easily doubled what you earned working, it’s hard to resist the urge to splurge.  To realize that is what the government thinks the average person in Canada earns and that you are no where near that is heartbreaking.  At first these ladies were scared to get comfortable with that money because they were waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Then they did get comfortable, but now as restrictions are lifting, they are preparing themselves to go back to scrimping because when they return to work they will also return to living on half of what they are getting from CERB.
When covid first started we thought the number of people coming to Outreach for help would go up, but in fact the opposite happened.  Our numbers went down.  We suspect this happened because the majority of our working poor were able to afford to buy their own groceries and clothing when they went on CERB.  These are the people who work as cleaners in hotels, dishwashers in restaurants, EA’s, daycare helpers, casual workers, seasonal workers, and other various minimum wage jobs.  These are responsible, contentious people who are normally struggling to make their way through life trying to raise a family on one income with a minimum wage job.  As restrictions lift and our guests return to work our numbers are starting to rise again.  The pandemic has been hard, but it did provide a moment of relief for some.  Most of us are looking forward to the time when life can return back to normal, but for some their normal life is actually more of a struggle than their pandemic life.  I only hope that when this is all over that our decision makers recognize stories like this and that it influences them to make decisions that will strengthen and uplift our social network.