www.veahavta.org/index.php/our-projects/
www.veahavta.org/index.php/our-projects/local-programs/
www.veahavta.org/index.php/our-projects/local-programs/homeless-initiatives/
www.veahavta.org/index.php/our-projects/local-programs/homeless-initiatives/frequently-asked-questions-about-homelessness/

Let me take a moment to talk about what a Bat Mitzvah means to me as a Jew. I asked myself, what does a Bat Mitzvah mean to me? I kept telling my friends what I wanted to get and what I planned to buy. I was so excited but I realized that it’s not about the gifts, it’s not about any of that. Becoming a Bat Mitzvah means to grow up, to become more mature, and to be welcomed into the Jewish community as a young adult. I am now expected to take care of things myself, and not to rely on my parents for everything. But, it’s not just that. It is so much more. I have expectations to do mitzvot, give tzedakah, and fulfill the 613 mitzvot of the torah. I will work at fulfilling as many mitzvot as I can, one of which is Tikun Olam, which brings me to this.

On December 24th my family and I had the pleasure of going to see The Sound of Music at The Royal Alexandra Theatre downtown. It was a cold day, snowing a little, and definitely not a great day to be outside. On the sidewalk next to where we parked was a grate. We saw a young man wearing a heavy sweater, without a jacket or mitts, checking the grate for heat so he could warm himself. My dad said that he had a fleece blanket in our car and wondered if we should give it to the man. We all agreed, OF COURSE, and proceeded to get the blanket out of the trunk and we all walked over to him and gave it to the man. He could not believe it. He was so touched, so grateful, so appreciative.

It is something that we all take for granted – covering up whenever we are cold. To this gentleman it was like winning a lottery. He wrapped himself in the blanket, lay down on the grate adorned in his precious garment. The sigh of relief from the man’s mouth said it all!

My purpose is to be responsible not only for myself and for my actions but to be responsible for others – to help others less fortunate than me – and I know how very fortunate I truly am! In trying to make some kind of connection between my Parashat and extract some meaning from it, with the help of my mom, I decided to create my very own tzedakah project.

I call it Project Cover Up. My Mom, the greatest sourcer of merchandise and deals that I know, went out and purchased 125 Queen sized fleece blankets. I partnered up with a fantastic organization called Ve’ahavta to reach the homeless and get these blankets delivered. They believe in the role of Tikun Olam – the act of repairing the world.

On January 21st my mom, dad and me went out in a van (not just any van – it’s called The Mobile Jewish Response to the Homeless) driven and supported by Ve’ahavta and delivered the 125 fleece blankets on the streets of Toronto to the homeless. We worked from 6pm until midnight and it was COLD. Ironically though, it was the most heart warming experience of my life! The people who we gave our blankets to were so grateful, so moved, so touched, and they were so WARM.

In some cases, the thing that they needed most was not food or clothing or a blanket (although they were incredibly grateful to receive any or all of these items) but a friendly face, someone to talk to, a conversation that they really appreciated. I got so much out of this experience. One random act of kindness…well actually 125 random acts of kindness…this is the meaning of Tikun Olam.

On January 21, 2010 I began my mission of Tikun Olam – to repair the world – one blanket at a time. It all stared with that one blanket but in a short time it reached another 125 people in need. With this tzedekah project I was able to reach a significant number of poverty stricken people.

We all have the strength to make a difference in this world we live in, and often take for granted, and I believe that this project has the potential to become bigger and better. I believe that this project not only made a difference in the lives of the homeless people, but it certainly a difference in my life as a new responsible adult.

- Emily F.

Hannah Damiani celebrated  her 7th birthday on January 9, 2010. She asked all of her friend to make donations to Ve’ahavta, instead of presents, to help the homeless. In January, Hannah and her brother Seth, came into Ve’ahavta’s office to give us the funds they had raised to help the homeless.  What a beautiful and compassionate gesture. We learn much from little people.

Hannah decided to contribute to Ve’ahavta becasuse she says, “she wants to help people” especially those who live on the streets. Here is the thing. Her parents, Sam and Marnie, told me their children strengthen them. What a beautiful thing to hear from parents. What they meant by that was that when Hannah and Seth see people in need, like a homeless fellow living on the street, they insist that their parents stop and help.

There have been times when they were so upset but the fact that someone was so in need, that both children would cry. I know this level of empathy. It runs deeply.

On one occasion, the family was heading down to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Hannah and her father spotted a fellow who needed some change. They were short on it so the next time they went downtown Hannah insisted the famly drive around to find him. They didn’t but saw someone else in need sitting on the edge of the street. They went over and gave him money.

“Early on when Seth was starting to read, he saw a sign that a person did not have a home or money for food; all of a sudden we heard crying in the back seat of the car. It was Seth who was so upset by what he read,” said mother, Marnie Burke.

They are beautiful children with an intuitive sense of empathy and caring. Like so many children they understand the importance of sharing and the true meaning of tzedakah, justice, finding balance in our world. The question is, our Hannah and Seth like this because of their DNA or is it a learned response? Are most or all children like them? Do we as adults have that inside of us?

Sam and  Marnie constantly remind the children how fortunate they are to have so much when so many have so little.  Seth and Hannah would like to personally challenge all children to play their role in tikun olam (repairing the world) by assisting those on the streets of Toronto or around the world through acts of tzedakah in support of Ve’ahavta’s projects.

- Avrum Rosensweig

Ve’ahavta is proud to have responded to the recent natural disaster in Samoa. Together with the Israeli Government, Toronto businessman Walter Arbib, and the UJA/Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto, we have sent pharmaceuticals appropriate to the suffering in this country.

The island nation of Samoa was devastated in late September after multiple earthquakes and tsunami. 150 people died and thousands were left injured and homeless. The Samoan government received assistance immediately after the tragedy from Counterpart International (Counterpart) in coordination with SkyLink Aviation, an international aviation company.

“You cannot close your eyes when you see these things happening,” says Walter Arbib, President of SkyLink Aviation.

Rescue forces are still searching for more survivors and adding to the death toll across Samoa, the earthquakes have finally subsided and water levels have begun to decrease. Now the country faces a massive cleanup and assessment of the widespread damage.

Counterpart and SkyLink have sent more than $125,000 worth of medical supplies to Samoa, treating over 5,000 survivors in the area.

Counterpart called upon a medical supplier in the Netherlands who had medicines available for immediate distribution. SkyLink, in cooperation with the United Jewish Appeal and Ve’ahavta on behalf of the Israeli Government, joined forces with Counterpart to send them to the people of Samoa. The pharmaceuticals were distributed in Samoa on Thursday, October 8^th.

Included in this distribution are anesthetics, analgesics, penicillin, antibacterial drugs, antacids, anti-infective agents, oral rehydration drugs, antifungal, anti-inflammatory and antipruritic drugs.

Counterpart’s direct contact, Dr. Stanley Dean, the General Manager of Samoa’s National Health Services, will facilitate the distribution in the most desperate areas after the SkyLink delivery.

With an early blast of Ol’ Man Winter whipping through the city canyons this week, the tug-of-war over sleeping bags will begin afresh, reports Wendy Banks

WENDY BANKS

Special to The Globe and Mail

December 6, 2008

Joan Ruzsa’s client, a homeless man, woke up one morning last month to discover that his sleeping bag had been stolen. He went to a community health agency that had given him survival gear in the past, but he was turned away. “They told him that the city was no longer funding sleeping bags,” says Ms. Ruzsa, co-ordinator of Rittenhouse, an advocacy group.

As this weekend brings in an early blast of Arctic air to the Greater Toronto Area, nobody wants to see people sleeping rough – least of all the general manager of the City of Toronto’s shelter, support and housing administration, Phil Brown. “We invest in getting people off the streets and into housing,” he says, “particularly in the very cold days that we experience throughout the winter.”

He is talking about the city’s award-winning Streets to Homes program, built on a “housing-first” model, which, according to Mr. Brown, has housed about 2,200 of Toronto’s estimated 5,000 homeless people since its inception in February, 2005.

But as the chill air settles in over the city next week, the battle will heat up again on what to do about homeless people who refuse to go into shelters.

Shelters, Ian and Darren agree, are terrible.

“The bedbugs!” Ian says. “They’re brutal.”

“And they sell crack right in the front door. You go in there to try and better yourself,” Darren says. “But when it’s there, it’s so easy to just …”

So what do they do when it gets cold?

“Freeze!” Darren says. They burst out laughing. “Sometimes we’ll sit in the subway shelters, until they kick us out,” he continues.

“Then the ATM places, until they kick us out,” Ian says.

The two of them were sitting together cross-legged on a pale-blue sleeping bag in a Bloor Street doorway one cold evening recently. That night the temperature fell below zero – this Arctic front will bring in subzero temperatures – and Ian and Darren had no plans to visit a shelter. The only thing standing between them and hypothermia was their sleeping bag. It was newish, in good shape, relatively clean. Lined with grey polyester, it looked light – better than a skimpy summerweight version, but no match for a frigid Toronto night.

It came from Ve’ahavta, a Jewish humanitarian organization that works with homeless people, they explained. “They also have them down at the church …” Darren said, pointing west down Bloor.

Last year’s winter was brutal, and, according to Environment Canada’s senior climatologist, David Phillips, this one promises to be snowier than average as well. Add a sour economy to the bitter weather, and some might wonder if an exclusive housing-first model is the best policy right now.

“The whole housing-first thing is based on something that advocates have been saying for a long, long time,” says Michael Shapcott, director of community engagement at the Wellesley Institute, a Toronto-based think tank on urban health, “which is that housing is one of the most fundamental issues for successfully stabilizing people.”

But, as he sees it, the political realities of the program leave something to be desired.

When Streets to Homes was approved by city council, it was accompanied by a few provisos designed, he says, “to give people a bit of a nudge to get off the street” – for example, a bylaw making it illegal for anyone to camp in a municipal square, and withdrawal of support for agencies that distributed survival services such as mobile food programs and sleeping bags.

However, “not everybody who is on the street is going to be willing to go into housing,” says Lorne Opler, a project manager at Ve’ahavta. For one thing, he says, “the accumulated impact that [homelessness] takes on one’s mental health is indescribable.”

For another, past traumatic experiences in shelters might make some homeless people reluctant to live in close quarters with others. “Some people think, ‘Well, what if I wind up living with a roommate who can be no different from the kind of people I might have been with in the shelter?’ ” Mr. Opler’s program, Mobile Jewish Response to Homelessness, has found one answer: Its van delivers warm clothes and hygiene products to street people four days a week. He says there’s an advantage to being funded through private donations: “We’re able … to pursue what we want to do with our focus and our mission statement intact.”

For the time being, privately funded and faith-based groups are still providing homeless people with survival supports – for example, the Out of the Cold program offers meals and beds in 19 churches and synagogues throughout the city, and organizations like Ve’ahavta and Street Health are distributing private donations of sleeping bags and warm clothes this winter.

Improvements to Streets to Homes are on the horizon: In May, 2008, city council approved funding for 72 full-time housing follow-up and outreach workers, up from 24; and they’ll be extending services to marginally housed people – shelter users and couch surfers, for example – as well as people sleeping rough.

Ian and Darren have both been on the streets for years. But Darren is hoping to get into a Streets to Homes apartment soon; he’s met up with an outreach worker and done the initial paperwork. “I just did it a week ago. He said it’d take about two to three weeks,” he says. “I call him on a regular basis, at least once a week. I was supposed to meet with him today, but I was elsewhere. But he knows I’m around.” Some friends of his were housed by Streets to Homes in the summer.

“Now they’ve got a good place. They’re happy. It does work, yeah,” he says, nodding, his breath coming in white puffs. “It does work.”