One more week to go for the cold weather shelter. We've had close to 50 people staying at the shelter for various lengths of time. Some of them only stay for a few days, others for almost a month. Last month, we were able to find housing for almost half of those who stayed with us longer than three nights. Which is pretty exciting.
The response to the appeal for starter-pack items was overwhelming. We should have a good number of things left over to provide seed for packs for next year. Even though the shelter itself is about to finish, the advocacy work of helping find homes for people will continue for another month. So in theory we could use up everything that's been donated. Next year we're going to work on getting some companies and local civic organizations on board at the beginning to provide some of the items we need to buy new, like alarm clocks and electric kettles (for my American friends, an electric kettle is a basic household necessity, used to boil water for tea...people here can't imagine how we cope with having to boil water on the stove-top!!)
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