Coldest Night of the Year – Burlington – Fundraiser Walk for Homeless and Hungry

Many of you will remember walking with me to deliver meals to the homeless. Well here’s a chance to do more to combat homelessness and help those living in poverty right in Burlington. The Coldest Night of the Year is a fantastically fun, family-friendly walking fundraiser that raises money for the hungry, homeless and hurting in 80+ communities across Canada on Saturday, February 21st, 2015.

In Burlington the host organization is Burlington Open Doors located at St. Christopher’s on Guelph Line. All proceeds from the Burlington Coldest Night of the Year walk will go to support Open Doors programs.

About Burlington Open Doors:
Open Doors serves people living with poverty in Burlington. Your involvement in this walk impacts hundreds of lives in a positive way, helping build a bright future that once seemed out of reach.

By supporting Open Doors you will:

• Help provide over 34,000 nutritious meals a year to families in a social environment.
• Help clothe over 2000 people a year in our Free Clothing Store
• Support 2 after school programs that provide care for children ages 4 and up.
• Support 10 programs and one Network that help people connect with one another, building a stronger social network while providing needed goods and services.
• Provide opportunities and support for over 200 volunteer jobs.
• Support an organization that values and respects diversity.
• Help provide community based programming that targets social inclusion.

Mission Statement:
To provide a welcoming and accessible place for
the gathering together of individuals of diverse
income, education, age, ability and health that
adds an inclusive feeling of community to their
lives.

Background:
Participants in our programs over the last 10 years
have described Open Doors as a community hub.
Through programs and partnerships we provide a
meeting place that offers food, family support and
socialization for all members of the community
that choose to participate.

Here are just some of the Open Doors programs in Burlington:

1 Partnership Food Bank West @ Open Doors
2 Weekly Community Dinner
3 Seniors’ Lunch
4 Halton Fresh Food Box Distribution
5 Community Kitchen
6 Halton Meal Network

…more

So click here to go to the Coldest Night of the Year website to sign up, volunteer or donate.

cheers!

Andy

Bell Let’s Talk Day Supports Mental Health Initiatives

For many years here on the MissionLog, I’ve spoken about the impact of mental illness on our homeless friends out on the street. So I’m pleased this year to be taking part in a social media event called Bell Let’s Talk Day this year on January 28.  Since 2010 Bell has contributed $62.5 million dollars to mental health initiatives in Canada. A large part of that is generated through activities on Bell Let’s Talk Day.

Two-thirds of homeless people using urban shelters suffer from some form of mental illness. Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health

What happens on Bell Let’s Talk Day? We are encouraged to communicate openly in public, through social media like Twitter, Facebook and Google+ about mental health issues to end the stigma associated with mental illness. 1 in 5 Canadians will suffer some form of mental illness at some point in their lives, but it’s still something we don’t like to talk about. Getting the facts and talking openly is important in helping people find support and treatment for their illness. Further, we can’t have a discussion on the root causes of homelessness without addressing mental health.

Here are some of the posts on the MissionLog that address mental health issues:

A Girl Named R

What Do You Think is the Root Cause of Homelessness? (5 parts)

In one of my posts, I shared the following:  “A recent study, by Heather Larkin of the University of Albany – shows the link between Adverse Childhood Experiences – ACE – and homelessness. From her study –

More than 85 percent of the homeless respondents reported having experienced at least one of 10 categories of adverse childhood experiences (ACE). Many (52.4 percent) had experienced more than four categories of traumatic events when growing up. … There is a high ACE prevalence among the homeless people in this study. Individuals with high ACE scores may be more vulnerable to economic downturns and cultural oppression, a person-environment interaction increasing the likelihood of homelessness. Service responses focused on identifying and addressing childhood traumas hold an opportunity for addressing ACEs before they contribute to homelessness.

By addressing mental health issues, we can take an important step in mitigating one of the major causes of homelessness. Here’s the bonus – by getting the word out on Bell Let’s Talk Day, you can help raise even more money.

So, on January 28, let’s talk.

Bell will donate 5¢ more to mental health initiatives for every:

• Text message sent*
• Mobile and long distance call made*
• *By a Bell or Bell Aliant customer only
• Tweet using #BellLetsTalk
• Facebook share of our Bell Let’s Talk image

Join the team and if you tweet on Twitter using the #BellLetsTalk hashtag, let me know there @canayjun

You can also connect with the Twitter team by going to @Bell_LetsTalk and @Healthy_Minds

See you out there on January 28th!

<><

Andy

home-less

It’s Christmas… and I’m Goin Home – Bill Wood Video

Because Christmas…

It’s that time of year again. Christmas is just past – I hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends. I know we were certainly fortunate to have so many people drop in and visit Christmas Eve. Christmas Day was even better, time spent with my parents for brunch and then a visit to our close friends in Hamilton where the proverbial feast was held.

It’s a time of year to be thankful and remember what the word home means to all of us. The music video here is from my old friend Bill Wood, a veteran of the Canadian music industry, who still turns out powerful and energetic original tunes in a style all his own. “I’m Goin Home”, is one of the best new Christmas songs I have heard in a long time. The chorus, “…it’s Christmas”, stays in my head and in my heart. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Now New Year’s is coming! After a long hiatus, I expect the MissionLog blog to take on a new life for 2014 with a greater focus on street level organizations that are making a real difference by helping and housing the homeless.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Andy — @canayjun

Winter in Burlington

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

I haven’t added anything new, but still had 7,100 visitors. Guess I better get back to it. But very busy over at phoneworthy.blogspot.com and near to launching speedmobile.ca

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 7,100 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 12 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

2011 in review from the Missionlog – Help the Homeless

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,900 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 7 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Using Social Media to Help Find a New Job – The Facebook Page

Join my cause – help me find a new job – get the word out! LIKE my new Facebook page – http://on.fb.me/Like-this –  & share it around.

home-less

This is the next phase in the online portion of my job search. I’ve built a Facebook page, with the goal of getting as many “likes” and shares as possible to beat the social media bushes for my next job. If you’ve heard of one going, contact me there.

From the FB profile –

Andy Coats:

Experienced non-profit homeless services professional. Thirty-five years of hands-on program operations and people management in a variety of industries. Dedicated Christian, community volunteer and advocate for people experiencing homelessness.

Recommendations:

“Andy successfully inspired broad spectrum community participation as the street outreach Community Development Coordinator at Project417 – Ekklesia. Andy’s writing, public speaking, scheduling and community liaison skills in addition to his commitment and dedication to the Sandwich Run program for the homeless were instrumental in developing a strong and dedicated army of volunteers and team of volunteer leaders. Many of the leaders and volunteers that became involved with the Project 417 program under Andy’s leadership remain in place today. I am one of them. His guidance was always heartfelt and trusted and his compassion for the plight of those less fortunate provided inspiration that resonates with volunteer groups and leaders to this day” ~ Darlene Winning, V.P. Operations, JLG Asset Management Group Inc.

Thanks for joining me in the journey.

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Using Social Media to Find a Better Job – Continued

or, People Say the Nicest Things Department – Part III

Andy is an unsung hero in our community…. His selflessness, compassion and commitment to his outreach work are truly inspirational… Andy is a man of great character with incredible passion for social justice… Andy successfully inspired broad spectrum community participation… He brings many years of experience and knowledge to any organization…

Some of you have been following my ongoing (and going and going) job search efforts over on Twitter and LinkedIn et al. I’m searching for a career with a non-profit engaged in homeless services and helping to end homelessness. I’ve been making a concerted effort to improve the usual round of submitting resumes and cover letters to promising organizations, by using the various social networks and apps that I have access to.

Here’s the latest via YouTube, LinkedIn and GoogleDocs. LinkedIn has a nice feature that let’s you embed various applications to deliver multimedia content right on your LinkedIn profile – in this case I’ve used their Google Docs app to add a presentation with an embedded Youtube video.

Check out the video – see me and my colleagues at work:

The video was produced with the help of TurnHere.com while I was the Community Development Coordinator for Project417 and I highly recommend the TurnHere service for anyone, non-profit or private business alike, to jump into video marketing for your cause or company. TurnHere’s customer service was superb and the videographer was the best. We filmed out on the streets of Toronto (at Yonge Dundas Square), because that is where the outreach to people experiencing homelessness takes place year round.

Over on my LinkedIn profile you see the video embedded in a Google Docs presentation which includes a second page with all kinds of good info for organizations that will be falling all over themselves to hire me. Anyway, that’s the plan…

You can reach me on Twitter @canayjun and sharing the link to this blog post on Twitter Google+, Facebook and others would be a big boost to my networking efforts and much appreciated.

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