Community Involvement

Join a program at the YWCA

Kiwanis Boys and Girls Club: Kiwanis provides many programs from athletics to theatre to after school -home work assistance and is open to volunteers for their various programs. See http://www.kboysandgirlsclub.com/

Wraparound Facilitator: In collaboration with the Kiwanis Boys and Girls club there is the opportunity to walk alongside a particular family in the east end who is striving to overcome some hurdles and achieve some identified goals and are looking to have the encouragement and assistance of a facilitator. Training happens a couple of times a year through Wraparound and the commitment of involvement varies from family to family, but the aim is to assist them to reach a point where they feel capable enough to move forward with their goals on their own (anywhere from 6 months to year, about 1-2 hours a week). Contact the Kiwanis B and G club.

Schools: Classroom aids, breakfast programs, after school programs…

Elementary:

A.M. Cunningham:

Queen Mary: Anger Management and Rights of Passage program. Breakfast program.

King George: Breakfast program

Memorial:

Holy Name of Jesus:

Secondary: Delta

Ottawa St. BIA – Help service the Ottawa St. area by volunteering time to be in the office (store front on Ottawa St.), it would consist of being available to those needing some direction or information about the Ottawa St. area. (times/days have yet to be determined). See http://www.shopottawastreet.com/find.php

Friends Of Gage: A group of individuals dedicated to keeping the life and wellness of Gage Park are open to members who will assist in the beautifying, maintenance and promoting use of Gage Park

Kiwanis Service Club: A group of interested community members who meet twice a month. They think and act both locally and globally supporting both the local Kiwanis Boys and Girls club (through fundraisers and other supports) as well as other global initiatives. It is a great place to meet and network!

Neighbourhood Associations: A good way to get the pulse of and have an impact on concerns, events and activities within the community, is to join a Neighbourhood Association. (There are currently none functioning in the Delta and CrownPoint area – but that leaves room for the opportunity to start one!!J)

City Kidz: They are expanding their program to Ottawa St and looking to move even further to Kenilworth. One of our greatest needs for Saturdays are to have adult volunteers, as a lot their volunteers are teens who use to be City Kidz kids and are learning what it means to 'give back'. I would recommend coming out to one of their Saturday Tours of City Kidz that happen every Saturday from 10:15-11:15am. Just book ahead to confirm a spot for Saturday! See http://citykidz.ca/home/

Good Shepherd Centre: An inner city ministry has various elements for community involvment including working in their warehouse or taking a day at the hot food program. See http://www.goodshepherdcentres.ca/

Welcome Inn: An inner city ministry has a long standing presence in the north end of Hamilton, addressing the concerns of marginalized peoples. They offer various avenues for volunteer involvment. Recently they have started a new thrift storem that needs both items and volunteers. They have a 'Learning and Fun' after school program, emergency food pantry, and a program to help establish or expand a small business. See http://www.welcomeinn.ca/

Farmer’s Market: As the Farmer’s Market moves to Ottawa St., there will be need for individuals to help keep the transition a smooth one; communicating with the business owners and assisting with traffic flow and direction etc.

Dream Centre: The Dream Centre offers many programs to the community including a clothing and food bank as well as some life skills resource. See http://www.thehamiltondreamcenter.org/

St. Giles…

STAR program…

Family/Movie Night with Kiwanis: If there are enough interested persons willing to commit to an (once a month - likely Friday?) evening where a family movie can be shown and a place and space are provided to interact with families in the community. This would be an opportunity to provide a healthy alternative and family activity for kids and parents to do on a Friday evening…This is more an idea in the works and needs volunteers to put legs on to it.

Café Adonai:

God Loves the Hammer

A wonderful Truecity conference this weekend (churches in Hamilton coming together for the good of the city), and I am once again reminded of Jesus' subservient life and actions. Changing water into wine, making clay out of mud on the Sabbath, asking for water from a Samaritan woman at the well - these were all activities that broke down the cultural ideals and barriers that placed rules on who to love and when and how. I look forward to how God will use us at New Hope challenging us to break lose of the fears and barriers that are created in our neighbourhoods preventing us from seeing Christ in each other.

The latest conversations....

Well, the community ministry team (still waiting for a catchier title to replace that name) has met several times now and we have shared with each other some of the conversations we have been having in the community as well as the 'word on the street'.

The word on the street:

• The Farmer's Market is moving to Ottawa street the second weekend in March and they will have a grand opening sometime in May.
• The owner of the Spice Imporium is looking to move across the street and expand his business to include coffee/latte's (hooorrraay), baked goods etc.
• There is a Pentecostal church meeting in the old Dofasco building. The pastor there is new and it was suggested we connect with him at some point to explore interests etc.
• Most of the vendors from Centre Mall are looking on Barton, Ottawa and Kenilworth to open up a store
  

Some of the people we have connected to:

• Patty Despinic of the BIA (gave ideas for how as a community we could serve this neighbourhood together)
• David Milmine. Former employee of Dofasco, currently connected with City Kidz, Wraparound, Promise Keepers. He is very well connected with business owners in the Ottawa St. area and encouraged maintaining Kiwanis as a resource in order to get to know and be connected with the families in this community.
• Marg Kowalski from the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction (they should also invest in a shorter/catchier name). The new motto for Hamilton is "Hamilton, the best place to raise a child". The recognition for the involvements of neighbourhoods to be instigators for change has led to a conversation with Marg about the Ottawa St. neighbourhood and we are working together to pull voices from the community with other leaders to address the issues identified.
  
• Jorge from Poco Loco's. He shared some of the things he hears about the neighbourhood through the customers that come (much of it revealed some of the negative perceptions of others who live here)