Ideas into Action Conclusion

Wednesday, September 13th, 2006
Well, I waited for responses and only received one from Jeff in Sicamous, BC so your gift card is the way. Jeff rightly suggested in his email that this isn’t an easy task. Most important decisions aeen’t easy. The choice of which action to take in regards to homeless families was made more difficult because of the issue and that we didn’t generate all the possible actions. But, I will take a run at explaining my reasoning. I used the process of elimination and dropped the church basement decison because it doesn’t have a significant positive impact except that it makes any volunteers feel good. It also relegates these families to being shunted around the city and hiding the problem and them from the community. It is a very labour intensive, costly, ineffective, inefficient use of resources. You would be better off taking your funds and supplying a furnished apartment/house to one or two or three.. families. At least this works towards lifting someone off the street and into a home. It also provides some children with a stable environment and security. This lead me to the decision that providing subsidized ransition housing for as many families as resources allow. If the negotiations with landlords, families and other service organizations are done correctly and proper supports are in place this empowers the family rather that creatting dependence and provides a stable environment. If you are looking to collaborate with others or join an organization working towards a solution, then seek someone that is building resilience by providing meaningful assistance to some people rather than pointless(possibly dangerous) programs to many.