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 [...]

Join the #Whyhomeless Movement – Help the Homeless

Visit Part 1 of the series at this short url -
http://bit.ly/19vTNG
Welcome to the continuing series exploring the root causes of homelessness. This is the #whyhomeless movement. A grassroots social action group committed to alleviating the challenges faced by people who are experiencing homelessness. Based in Toronto, but pursuing a worldwide issue,  we think global, but [...]

Remember New Orleans 8 29 2005 Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina: 4 Years Ago 8-29-2005 Video Remembrance

Hurricane Katrina: Rain to Renaissance – YouTube Video
I couldn’t let August 29th go by without posting some remembrance for our many friends in New Orleans. Four years ago today Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast and devastated New Orleans. I went down and volunteered [...]

What do you think is the root cause of homelessness? Part 5

Visit Part 1 of the series at this short url –
http://tinyurl.com/whyhomeless

In my last post I said:
We need to re-visit the issue of the root causes of homelessness and use our findings to publicly articulate an actionable plan to reduce homelessness. We need to wrest control of the issues from interest groups and some activist [...]

What do you think is the root cause of homelessness? – Part 4

Visit Part 1 of the series at this short url –
http://tinyurl.com/whyhomeless

A Call to Action:
In Parts 1 to 3 of the series, we have investigated the root cause of homelessness.  I mentioned the need to decide upon a definition of homelessness.  I’d like to postpone that for a short time because there is a window [...]

What do you think is the root cause of homelessness? – Part 3

Homelessness – The Root Causes – Part III
In Part I & Part II,  I have been asking the question – “What do you think is the root cause of homelessness?”  (Join the movement – tweet your answers on Twitter with the tag #whyhomeless).  I pointed out that -
The right to housing is a basic human [...]

What do you think is the root cause of homelessness? Part 2

Read – What do you think is the root cause of homelessness? Part I
Homelessness – The Root Causes – Part II

In Part I of the series, I shared the results of informal surveys of volunteers over the last few years of what people think is the root cause of homelessness. It’s important to address this [...]

What do you think is the root cause of homelessness?

Homelessness – The Root Causes – Part I
Several nights a week I travel the the downtown streets of Toronto with groups of volunteers delivering bag lunch meals to the homeless. We call it a Sandwich Run – each bag lunch contains a sandwich, an apple, a snack like a granola bar or rice crispy square [...]

50 Reasons to Leave Facebook

From a recent Facebook Note -

In no particular order:
(like, you really need 50 reasons?)
1. You have better things to do, no really.
2. Have you ever actually read the Facebook Terms & Conditions?
3. See number 50
4. It spawns spam – it is spam spawning.
5. Facebook mines your personal data and relationship information to sell to advertisers.
6. [...]

Leadership vs. Teamwork

Sunday is a great day to reflect and, if you’re lucky, to be inspired. I got lucky yesterday and heard a great message by our Pastor, Joe Elkerton, at the Bloor Lansdowne Christian Fellowship. It was on leadership.
It made me think how our society is so focused on “leadership” but seems to forget what really [...]