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| End Homelessness Winnipeg Newsletter: February 2022 View this newsletter on Mailchimp Reaching Home Community Investment Update As Community Entity for Reaching Home since 2019, End Homelessness Winnipeg administers federal homelessness funding locally, to support vulnerable Winnipeggers in maintaining safe, stable, and affordable housing. From January to December 2021, End Homelessness Winnipeg, in consultation with Service Canada and the Community Advisory Board for Reaching Home, invested a total of more than $18 million across more than 35 local organizations. From street outreach and drop-in services, to Housing First and capital investments, Reaching Home supported local agencies assisting people each step along the journey from homelessness to housing, with an emphasis on Indigenous cultural safety and COVID-19 prevention. View the full list of organizations and initiatives supported here to find out more about some of the good work happening in our city. Winnipeg Progress Report Heads to UN  End Homelessness Winnipeg is featured in a new report from United Way Winnipeg and the International Institute for Sustainable Development. The report provides the United Nations and a global network of cities with fresh insights on how Winnipeggers are faring in relation to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Winnipeg and the SDGs: A Voluntary Local Review of Progress 2021 continues the work of presenting annual reports and an online interactive dashboard (mypeg.ca) of the latest data on life in Winnipeg. This year’s report is being submitted to the United Nations as a “Voluntary Local Review” on progress toward the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that more than 190 countries agreed to reach by 2030. The report introduces our city to an international audience and updates Winnipeggers on the latest available data on our economy, commuting patterns, food bank use, health statistics, and other indicators. You can read the full report here. Call for Shelters Emergency Staffing Pool The Omicron surge has created staffing concerns for agencies across the sector this winter. As the cold season progresses, overnight shelters and safe spaces are regularly at capacity, yet continue to face a risk of being unable to stay open due to staffing shortages caused by staff illness and isolation. To prevent a staffing emergency from impacting capacity at overnight shelters and safe spaces, partners are collaborating to recruit a team of staff, who have experience in the sector and would be able to take on additional hours or unpaid leave from current roles, to assist with direct service shelter and safe space operations in the case of a staffing emergency. The commitment required would be ten hours of training plus one or two full time weeks of work in the case of a staffing emergency. The intention is to pay participating staff at their regular wage, through a single organization (Siloam Mission) that would support recruitment, training, and deployment across all sites. As this is a new collaborative initiative in response to emerging concerns, some details are still being finalized. It is hoped that this pilot initiative can strengthen sector capacity and collaboration to proactively respond when facing future challenges. Partners are asking both for organizational leaders to support staff who are interested to participate, and for individual staff to put their names forward for this team by emailing Tammy Henwood: tammy.henwood@siloam.ca with your name and contact information for further details. Miigwetch ~ Maarsii ~ Kinanâskomitin ~ Thank you! |