The Westerner for December 10, 2012

Meeting:  chair, Duane Evans; music, Jerome; grace, Kieran

Attendance/Guests:  30 including Colin Inglis, guest speaker; Diego Centanni, Rotary Club of Edmonton; Nadine Fulmer, Rotary Club of Edmonton Northeast

Gift Cards:  good to give as Christmas gifts - see Brian to purchase

Grandview Concert:  Bill Buckham thanked Jerome for arranging and presenting the Jan Randall concert last week.  Jan is very versatile

50/50:  Jim Johnston and Dave did not match cards, $45 carried over

Finemaster:  Mike Henry did a good job of cleaning out wallets - $1 for Jim Spalding for unnecessary reminder of finemaster duties; $1 for anyone who has not played Santa; $2 if you have not contributed to another Christmas type charity, $1 if you have; $1 if your clothes do not match the intensity of Dave's tie

Guest Speaker:  Steve introduced Colin Inglis, a retired teacher and school principal.  Colin was a founder of City Centre Education before he retired.  He now works as an out reach worker for Boyle Street Community Service.

Colin started his talk very low key but he provided a powerful message about life on the street and how a lot of the street people end up there.  Colin's office is a briefcase with a sign on it "DOWN TOWN OUTREACH WORKER".  Relationships are the meat and potatoes of life.  People on the street don't trust easily and, therefore, do not generate relationships.  Colin reviewed some of his monthly tracking reports which showed that in one recent month he had 302 contacts of with 28 were new people on the street.  10 of those 28 were homeless. 

Street people that are employed tend to work for temp agencies.  Of the $12 per hour that they get paid, they have to reimburse the agency for supplies like hard hats.  Thus they have a hard time getting ahead.

Colin provided 70 different type of services that month of which only 6 were for basis needs.  Services offered include find a home, find employment, get a doctor's appointment, get I D.  Colin feels people end up on the street after suffering 3 bad things in their life.  They can't deal with the totality.  3 groups are over represented on the street - First Nations and Metis; mental health patients, intellectually challenged.  2000 housing units would go a long way to solving the street problems.  They need to be a variety of types of housing situated in a variety of locales.  Colin described various people as examples of how good, normal people end up on the street.

Colin was thanked by Al Homes.