KAIROS Blanket Exercise Workshop

On October 22 from noon to 2:30 pm in the St. John the Divine Anglican Church Hall at 925 Balmoral Street, Congregation Emanu-El, the Community of St. John the Divine and Greater Victoria Acting Together (GVAT) will host a KAIROS Blanket Exercise Workshop.

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Bring items for homeless to Brechner’s Open House

Congregation Emanu-El’s Youth Group is helping Avodah collect toiletries and other items for the homeless.

Call for Volunteers for HeroWork’s Anawim House project

HeroWork is a charitable organization that renovates non-profits community infrastructure through fast-paced leadership-driven events called Radical Renovations. HeroWork does this at a fraction of the normal cost and time, through fast-paced renovation events. These are akin to a modern-day version of an old fashioned barn-raising.

Art show: Empowered life

(August 31 – September 10) —

Anawim House’s 2nd Collaborative Community Art Show will open on Thursday, August 31 at 7:30 pm at the Public Market at the Hudson 1701 Douglas Street, Victoria. The display and auction continue through September 10.

Our Place welcomes donations in kind

Our Place strives to meet the needs of its large extended family and welcomes donations in kind. Please consider
donating the following:*

• Winter clothing
  Winter has come to Victoria and many of the
  Our Place family find themselves without adequate warm
  clothing and supplies for the cold days and frigid nights. Please check your closets for gently used extra coats, scarves, gloves, hats and sleeping bags that are in good condition and bring them to Our Place Recep tion.
• Bus tickets
  Transportation to medical, dental and job interviews is often difficult for our family members. Our Spiritual
  Care office tries to keep a supply of
  Bus
  Tickets in our office to assist individuals who need them for these
  important appointments. Please consider
  making a donation of Bus
  Tickets to the Spiritual Care office at Our Place.
• Nutritional supplements
  Many of our family often have issues
  with nutrition because of chronic health issues. Our Spiritual Care office tries to keep a supply of Boost & Ensure supplements in our office to help individuals we know are
  struggling with nutrition issues.

*Bring donations in kind to Our Place Society at 919 Pandora Ave, Victoria, BC
V8V 3N4, Canada

Avodah’s Rent Supplement Program

The
extremely tight housing market is resulting in rising rental costs, low vacancy
rates and high competition for available units.  Many families struggle to
keep a roof over their heads. 

To
help families who are at risk of or are experiencing homelessness, Avodah
Social Action Group has partnered with the Burnside Gorge Community Centre for
several years.  Avodah provides $485 in monthly funds- $360 a month for
rent and utilities for up to three families and an additional $125 a month for
emergency food cards. 

Burnside
Gorge, in its quarterly reports to Avodah, details how Avodah’s funds are
spent.  Following are a few examples from these reports:

“A
single mother received word that she had been accepted into subsidized housing
after a three year wait. Though working full-time, she was struggling to
come up with funds to cover a damage deposit, rent and moving costs. A
rent supplement was provided to assist her in covering the damage
deposit, ensuring she was able to accept the unit. ”

“ A family with two children aged seven and two were at imminent risk of
having their electricity disconnected due to the high costs of winter
heating. After exhausting all other possible financial resource from
family, friends, and other community organizations the Housing Outreach team
was able prevent the loss of electricity with an Avodah subsidy; in order
to prevent further disconnection notices the Housing Outreach team
arranged an affordable equal payment plan between the family and
BC Hydro.”

” A single father had his hours cut at work and was struggling to pay his
rent. A rent supplement was provided to cover the remainder of his rent
and ensure he kept his unit in subsidized housing. He was then able to
focus on securing a second job to increase his income and ensure he is able to
pay his rent on time"

In concluding their report, The Family Housing Outreach Workers thank Avodah
for our continuing financial support, saying how Burnside Gorge Community
Association’s work, in combination with our monthly cheques, helps families
achieve long term success in maintaining housing.

Your donation to Avodah will help ensure continued support for this program.

McGregor Socks Donations

Monday January 9th

Avodah and the Victoria Cool Aid organized an event at Anawim House to mark the 9th year of McGregor Socks donations—totalling over 70,000 socks. At the event, Michael Bloomfield discussed community-building through socks fundraising and logistical coordination, and three local service groups shared stories of the work they do in Victoria and the impact of handing someone in need a pair of warm, dry socks. 

We talked about how this project is about socks, and also about community collaboration and sharing—from the organization of the project, to the collaborative distribution of the socks to 30 local community agencies. Three socks recipient agencies attended the event: CARTS Outreach, the Victoria Youth Clinic and Anawim House.