HELPING HAND: The Bridges ramps up support for those seeking permanent housing and gives back through social enterprise
For those experiencing, and attempting to move beyond homelessness, it’s rarely a straight line.
The Cambridge Shelter Corporation (known as The Bridges) understands that, and it’s reflected in the range of programs offered by the non-profit organization.
The Bridges provides year-round shelter, a drop-in centre, transitional housing, and support including medical and financial guidance for men and women facing homelessness.
For many, the journey doesn’t end there. Some folks who are eventually able to land back on their feet and secure permanent housing often are not equipped to go it alone due to a variety of circumstances. In many cases, these individuals have relied on others around them for extended periods.
Enter the home-based housing support worker.
“We realized that some of these folks who were moving out didn’t have the supports, and didn’t have that connection to help them maintain their housing once they were housed,” said Wayne Paddick, Executive Director of The Bridges. “As you can imagine, a lot of the folks coming into the shelter have a wide range of needs.”
The home-based support worker can go into homes and check on individuals, make sure they’re getting to their appointments, connect them with primary care, and provide the support required during the transition, with the end goal being full independence.
“Anything that person may need to be successful. Continuing the work that we start in the shelter while someone is housed is very key in keeping that person housed,” Paddick said. “A lot of our folks have either never lived on their own or it’s been a long time since they’ve had their own set of keys.”
While the home-based support worker has only been in place at The Bridges since May 2023 the impacts have already been noticed. And the timing couldn’t be better.
According to Paddick, the pandemic, combined with the housing crisis, has made securing adequate housing options much trickier. Some landlords who struggled financially due to the pandemic might be more hesitant to take on individuals on fixed incomes, while the housing market itself has been a tough nut to crack in general.
“Sometimes the rights of our clients are trampled on so having the (home-based) worker in place with the knowledge and with the networks to support them is so important and vital,” said Paddick.
But the home-based support worker is just one of many impactful initiatives The Bridges has undertaken to support people coming out of the shelter system.
In 2023 they received funding from Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF) through the Investment Readiness Program (IRP) to support their social enterprise called In Our Backyard, which launched in May 2023.
In Our Backyard is a landscaping company that offers employment to shelter graduates and a few who are still in shelter. All earnings are used to pay their staff and provide them with leadership and career development opportunities.
“It has been simply amazing to see how the In Our Backyard program has boosted the confidence of those doing the work and motivated them to move forward into permanent housing.”
In addition to making social change, In Our Backyard provides their workers with all-electric equipment to help reduce pollution and minimize the environmental impact of their work. This also reduces yard noise as projects are being completed.
As a Regional Partner for IRP, WRCF worked with CFC and the Government of Canada to lead the distribution of funding through the Central South-Western Ontario Region HUB, in partnership with three other Community Foundations and five local organizations driving social change. Between 2019 and 2023, they delivered $900,000 to 25 organizations, one of which was The Bridges.
“To have an organization like WRCF put their trust in us with funding to be able to do the work, they’re saying, ‘yeah, you know what, we’ve seen what you’re doing, we trust what you’re doing. Here’s a bit more to help you out.’ To us, it’s a feather in our cap that we’re being recognized, we’re being entrusted with dollars to be able to do this work. It’s a great feat for us.”
According to Paddick, The Bridges has been able to help find permanent housing solutions for some 230 individuals who have attended the shelter in Cambridge since March 2019. And they have supported more than 11 shelter graduates through their social enterprise so far.
If you would like to learn more about how you can support The Bridges, visit https://cambridgesheltercorp.ca. For information on In Our Backyard and to book landscaping services, call 226-753-1415 or go to inourbackyard.ca.
About the IRP
This project is part of the Investment Readiness Program, funded by the Government of Canada’s SI/SF Strategy. Organizations received funding to access outside expert advice or services to research, design, launch, measure and scale up their social enterprise and get ready to access investment in Canada’s growing social finance marketplace.
To learn more about WRCF and the IRP, please visit www.wrcf.ca/news/irp-2023. If you are considering an impact investment from WRCF as a source of financing for your organization, visit www.wrcf.ca/impact-investing to learn more
