After many years with this idea in the back of their minds, the staff at the Inn From the Cold homeless shelter in Newmarket have created a new business to help get their clients get back into the workforce.
Dubbed the Inn Team, the business gives the shelter's recently housed clients the opportunity to make some money and develop their marketable skills by doing odd jobs for customers in the community.
"We have seen how our clients want to give back to the community and to the shelter. They have always said 'what can I do to help you, I see you guys so busy running around unloading food or donations or cleaning.' They really wanted to know what they could do."
Instead of just giving clients chores, the shelter applied for and received a one-time grant of $70,000 from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to start the new business. After spending this summer talking with clients, community partners and focus groups, they launched the Inn team in mid-September.
Since then, about 20 clients have taken part in the business, doing odd jobs around Newmarket, mostly physical labour tasks.
"They are paid, and they go out with a team lead who organizes the work with whoever has hired them. They have done some cleaning, some more general labour jobs. We have also contracted with the Inn Team to have them do some cleaning at Inn from the Cold," she said.
"Sometimes, the income is what makes the difference between being able to pay rent and not. This gives them purpose, helps them develop new skills, and rediscover old skills. There are a lot of very skilled people out there; they just haven't been using them."
"We have seen a couple of people move onto full-time employment since we started, which is fantastic. They discover that they are a good worker and take that next step. It's been a great project."
To be able to join the Inn Team, shelter clients must complete the shelter's eight-week Getting Ahead Program — another initiative funded by Trillium — that helps clients figure out what they want to do with their lives and what the next steps should be.
"It also gives them insight into their own experience and insight into homelessness in general in that their experience isn't unique and wasn't their fault," said Watson.
"They work really hard on a roadmap to exit homelessness. So we made it a prerequisite and ... It has worked really well because people have had time to reflect on where they want to go, and the Inn Team is a stepping stone for moving ahead."
Watson and her colleagues are determined to keep the Inn Team going next year when the grant money runs out. Ideally, they will find a business model that will make the initiative self-sustaining as a viable business but have other fundraising options if that proves to be insufficient.
Anyone interested in hiring the Inn Team for a job can do so by contacting them through their Facebook page.
