And The Work Goes On

The first missionlog logo

Started well back in 2004, the important work of the MissionLog continues. The way the work looks has changed over the years but the focus remains on supporting people who are experiencing homelessness – primarily through advocacy, education and engaging people to be involved on social media. The main social media feed is on Twitter with @canayjun which has been active since 2008. We directly reach more than 4,000 followers via Twitter. Join us there.

The need is as great as ever and we partner with leading homelessness non-profits like the Canadian Association to End Homelessness and many others. Check back soon for an updated directory. A key personal component has been moving the fight local by participating with local groups providing services to the homeless like Open Doors at St. Christopher’s in Burlington and the Burlington Foodbank.

Locally is where you can make the biggest impact yourself. Connect with a local charity today and be the change.

Stay on mission!

Andy Coats

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!

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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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Social media activist – Mark Horvath – puts a face on Canadian homelessness.

For immediate release – press release: Calgary Homeless Foundation, Community Action Committee
(Toronto, ON; August 12) Heading into Toronto August 19 – 22, Cross-country Invisiblepeople.tv Roadtrip gains momentum as formerly homeless man & renowned social media activist, Mark Horvath, puts a face on Canadian homelessness.

Ever doubt the power of social media to make true change? Let us introduce you to Mark Horvath, Huffington Post blogger, @hardlynormal on Twitter and founder of invisiblepeople.tv. Mark puts power into the hands of Canada’s most vulnerable people: those experiencing homelessness. By giving individuals a voice, he is building awareness and support to end homelessness.

Mark, once homeless himself, understands the issue. He is midway through the Invisiblepeople.tv cross-Canada Roadtrip coordinated by The Community Action Committee (CAC) and the Calgary Homeless Foundation (CHF). Socially-responsible companies General Motors, Petro-Canada, Virgin Mobile Canada, Hanes and Delta Hotels are sponsoring Mark as he gathers and posts these real, raw and unforgettable stories on: http://www.invisiblepeople.tv with mainstream media networks demonstrating the value of his message.

 We’re exposing the un-natural disaster of homelessness in Canada through the personal stories of those experiencing it.” said Tim Richter, President and CEO of the CHF “As Canadians see their homeless neighbours through Mark’s lens, they are compelled to act and join the growing number of Canadian communities committed to ending homelessness.

“The power of social media is that we associate names, faces and stories with homeless individuals.” said Barry Davidson, Chair of the CAC. “Canadians are listening and communities are galvanizing to take action to end homelessness.”

Roadtrip Stops

City	Date	City	Date
Victoria	July 5-6	Regina	August 5-6
Vancouver	July 7-10	Winnipeg	August 8-9
Kelowna	July 12	Thunder Bay	August 11
Calgary	July 14-16	Sault Ste Marie	August 13
Red Deer	July 17	Toronto	August 19-22
Edmonton	July 18-19	Ottawa	August 28-30
Whitehorse	July 21-22	Montreal	September 1-3
Yellowknife	July 24-26	Fredericton	September 5-6
Fort McMurray	July 28	Halifax	September 8-9,14
Edmonton	July 30-31	St. John’s	September 11-12
Saskatoon	August 2-3

**dates subject to change. Visit http://www.calgaryhomeless.com/cac for the most up-to-date schedule.

How can you help?

• Spread the word, post stories on Facebook and Twitter, try & gain as much attention as you can.
• Welcome him to your city and provide him with a tour of where homeless people stay.
• Speak to your media friends and help get the problem noticed.
• Follow Mark’s journey on Twitter @hardlynormal.
• Help build support for 10 Year Plans and the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness.

Contact: Sean French, Community Action Committee

sean@calgaryhomeless.com  Twitter – @seanfrench1

About Mark Horvath

Follow Mark’s journey on www.invisiblepeople.tv, a site that shares unedited, uncensored and raw interview footage. Go to www.wearevisible.com, a site that gives people dealing with poverty and homelessness the tools to go online and have a voice.  Follow his journey on Twitter @hardlynormal, with almost 13,000 followers. Mark was featured on CTV Canada AM, CBC Connect with Mark Kelley, The Roy Green Show, CNN, CBS, L.A. Times, Mashable.com and NPR. InvisiblePeople.tv has 2.5 million video views on Youtube alone with an average of 50,000 views per month.

10 Year Plan

From 1994 to 2006, Calgary had Canada’s fastest growing population of people experiencing homelessness, culminating with nearly 3,500 people sleeping in shelters. In 2007, the Calgary Committee to End Homelessness was formed to create a 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness. In January 2008, Calgary became the first city in Canada to have a Plan that committed the community to end homelessness. This tour supports the Calgary Homeless Foundation’s goal to create a Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness. To date over 2300 individuals have been housed with support.

The Community Action Committee

This Committee is the voice of community and works at the policy level, providing real-time information to coordinate the efforts of agencies, government and funders. With more than 100 member organizations that plan, deliver, evaluate and assess the services needed to end homelessness in Calgary, members work directly to help people at risk of or experiencing homelessness. For more information about the CAC or the invisible people Canadian road trip visit www.calgaryhomeless.com/cac.

 

Media inquiries, homeless serving agency inquiries and sponsorship inquiries can be directed to:

Sean FrenchCommunity Action Committeesean@calgaryhomeless.com@seanfrench1

This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada.

Social Media – Publishing on the Semantic Web with Small Rivers Paper.li

Day 26: Putting the Social Network to Work –

The job search continues.  Resumés are being fine tuned and sent out. Job search websites like Workopolis and Monster are being queried. Friends and family are being reminded to get the word out. Bushes are being beaten… you get the picture.

Those of you who have joined me here on the Missionlog blog have already heard how I’ve been using my online social network to assist with my job search. I’ve been punching up my Twitter and Facebook profiles and got some good buzz from improving my LinkedIn profile. As a matter of fact, the LinkedIn article  – The Value of a LinkedIn Recommendation – was broadcast (re-tweeted) several times on Twitter and also ended up in four online “Daily” newspapers from paper.li by Small Rivers.

It showed up on Canada Homeless & Poverty News from @CanadaVolunteer and quickly was re-published on more, extending my social media reach beyond what I would normally expect.

Your daily online paper from paper.li can be set up and published in just a couple of minutes, or you can spend some time to customize it if you wish. Basically the service scrapes articles found in links from your timeline in Twitter of people you follow, designated Twitter lists or even keyword and hashtag searches. It then retrieves the information and inserts it in a pre-formatted online publication and shows the Twitter name of the contributor (the person who tweeted the link).  You can name the paper as you wish. Mine is the Helping Hands Daily (be sure to check it out) and is gleaned from a custom list followed by or following @canayjun on Twitter –  Activists, volunteers, journalists and other good folks who just plain “get it” when it comes to issues of homelessness and poverty.

 

There are thousands of these paper.li dailies out there. I’ve just started publishing mine and will continue to work on it to improve it’s relevance and scope. The good folks at Small Rivers are continuing to develop the service to make it more useful to people who want to make their social network work. Hopefully it will help me get the word out to prospective employers who are making a difference in ending homelessness.

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The Value of a LinkedIn Recommendation – Social Media

or People Say the Nicest Things Department – Part II

Some of you have been following my recent job search efforts over on Twitter and Facebook et al. You can connect with me at Twitter.com/canayjun 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. I figure that plain old networking has changed drastically in the last seven years (the last time I looked for a job) and realized that I’d built an effective  web of online social connections that should be put to work.

The Geocities logo of mission_log project417

In addition to 3,000+ Twitter followers, I’ve kept this WordPress blog up and it’s had more than fifty thousand page views since inception – and it is actually a continuation of my first blog over on the now departed Geocities Mission_log – where my first post was in 2004.  There’s also “a canayjun point of view” over on Blogger at http://canayjun.blogspot.com with more than fifteen thousand views. Just for fun I have also published a couple of other blogs, which I should really make more use of:  Restaurant at the End of the Internet, an End of the Internet and more. In addition to Facebook, (reserved for IRL friends and family) you can find me on Flickr, Google, YouTube,  Box.net and LinkedIn

On LinkedIn, I’ve been working on my professional profile and work history and was pleased to reach the point where it’s 100% completed, although there is still quite a bit of job history to add.  As I blogged last week, I’ve been using the LinkedIn feature to request recommendations from co-workers, colleagues and friends that are pertinent to my current job search. I’ve been bowled over by the response and humbled by the comments.  Just yesterday I received a recommendation from a former co-worker, Fred Chu, who works at Lucasfilm now as their Senior Texture Artist & Look Development. Fred was a huge help when he was in Toronto, assisting us with the Project417 outreach to the homeless – dependable, compassionate and someone who could be relied upon to be available and take the lead when we were short handed. here’s his recommendation in full:

Andy is a man of great character with incredible passion for social justice balanced by an equally wonderful soft spot for people in need. His commitment to his work was inspiring, his genuine heart for people was endearing and his easy smile was simply contagious. And regardless of how difficult & heart-breaking the work was, this man was always a beacon of positivity. I was truly blessed to have had the opportunity to work with him. Thank you for letting me tag along for the ride!” June 21, 2011

Cyril Frederick Chu, Matte Painter/Texture Painter/VFX Artist, Mr. X Inc.
reported to Andy at Project417 – Ekklesia

Thank-you Fred.  An eloquent recommendation. Which brings me to the point – just how valuable are recommendations on LinkedIn? In respect to my immediate job search that remains to be seen.  As you can gather from my LinkedIn profile, I’m currently seeking a position with a non-profit / charity organization that addresses the issue of homelessness. I think the recommendations offer a personal glimpse into the depths of my experience and the breadth of all I have to offer to many an organization. Unlike Workopolis or Monster.com and similar job search sites, I think LinkedIn has a formula here that truly exploits our comfort with social media that can impact our career choices positively. What do you think?

A team of dedicated volunteers

I don’t know about you, but if I was responsible for hiring a manager or director of a progressive homelessness service organization and read these recommendations, I’d sure want to talk to me. Come back and visit soon, I’ll be blogging about other ways I’m trying to use Twitter and the rest and we’ll see how it all turns out.

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