Gala Charity Benefit in Toronto to Help the Homeless

Toronto Charity Benefit – ‘Our Toronto includes the Homeless’
Reserve November 28th on your calendar to make a difference for the thousands of people in Toronto who are experiencing homelessness. We pass them on the streets every day and, as the cold weather comes, see them huddled over hot air grates outside Toronto’s downtown skyscapers and [...]

A Girl Named R

A friend recently told me that people who want to help the homeless are interested in reading more personal stories about those who are experiencing homelessness.  They didn’t know I’ve been posting stories about many of the homeless people we serve at Project417 for several years. It comes with the territory of being a [...]

Homeless in Mississauga

Where would you go?
I was challenged by an encounter with a homeless man on Saturday night in Mississauga. I work with the homeless in Toronto out on the street with Project417, but in the past, around 2004, had done outreach in Brampton and Mississauga. Lack of funding and general lack of awareness and sensitivity to [...]

Homeless prefer grassroots Out of the Cold program versus city run shelters

It’s spring right? I mean it’s getting warmer right?  Well, I don’t know about where you live, but here in Toronto there has been a dearth of fine spring weather. We’ve had more than our share it seems of unseasonably cold weather, especially cold, blustery winds and the perennial April showers. Most of us, we [...]

From Joe the plumber to Obama the painter – Volunteer!

President-elect Barack Obama urges public service, paints at shelter –
A day away from becoming the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama rolled green paint onto blank walls at an emergency homeless shelter in Washington, the Sasha Bruce House, a shelter for teenagers…On the holiday honouring Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.,  Obama [...]

Toronto Tragedy – Homeless Man Burns to Death Outside Bank ATM

Homelessness in Toronto has been called a disaster. Now it has progressed to the  point of tragic calamity. The Saturday Toronto Star (Jan 10 2009) reports that John Massie, 46, (known to us here by his street name – Classy), a homeless man who lived on the streets in the heart of Toronto’s financial district, [...]

Devastating Hurricane Ike swamps Texas and Louisiana – Worse Than Katrina

By The Associated Press GALVESTON, Texas -Howling ashore with 177 kilometre-an-hour winds, Hurricane Ike ravaged the Texas and Louisiana coasts Saturday, flooding thousands of homes and businesses, shattering windows in Houston’s skyscrapers and knocking out power to millions of people. At first light, it was unclear how many may have perished, and authorities mobilized for [...]

The MissionLog – News, Updates, Volunteering.

Scroll down for volunteering & homelessness news
Project417 is an outreach program to the homeless — more here. This Mission Log, is an update by Andy, an outreach worker with Project417 since 2001.  Andy works with the homeless in Toronto and coordinates Disaster Relief trips since Katrina in 2005 (most recently Hurricane Ike, Dec. 2008).  Stay [...]

Time to Volunteer – Out of the Cold

Autumn is here again, although you wouldn’t know from the sunny, balmy weather we’ve been having. This is definitely a bonus for the homeless street population here in Toronto. Here at Project417 we are not looking forward to the wet, cold and blustery weather that is bound to be coming soon. It makes life difficult [...]

Mission_log: New Site about Poverty and Homelessness

Hi everyone. This is a new site (thanks to wordpress blogs) to update and replace my old yahoo! geocities site. I’ll be migrating over most of the information and links from the old mission_log site to this new one, but will probably leave the existing stuff there as well as archives and so on. the [...]