Above and Beyond
Wednesday night team on the first snowy night of the season. When OIM staff pack up for the day and lock the doors at 4pm, we know that...
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- Aug 9, 2019
A Tough Night
It was a particularly rough start to the night at Innercity Arts. One of the youth had arrived in distress, suffering from a mental...
- Jul 18, 2019
I Met Jesus This Morning
I make a quick stop at a local fast food restaurant for some food and meet a homeless gentleman at the door. He is panhandling, which is...
- Mar 20, 2019
10 Years of Innercity Arts
As we near the 10th anniversary of Innercity Arts, I wanted to look back on how the program came about. I recently spoke with Jason Pino,...
- Dec 5, 2018
Larissa’s Journey: Life On My Own – Homeless On The Streets
Larissa’s Journey is a blog series that we hope will offer insight and understanding into the lives of one of the young people in the...
- Apr 28, 2018
Lost, but not forgotten
Life is like that at times and people somehow seem to end up in the dark recesses of memory and disappear behind the urgency of the lives...
- Apr 13, 2018
A “New” Pair of Shoes
The whole night went by and we handed out the usual: sandwiches, socks, juice boxes. Finally, as we were ending our shift, one of the...
- Apr 11, 2018
Is there someone out there who cares?
When someone from the street experiences loss, their own isolation and marginalization is often compounded with the question: Does anyone...
- Apr 7, 2018
Taking Time To Notice
And yet, they are all there with the same message: “I want your attention.” The reward in the discovery of a “blur” is like a box waiting...
- Mar 8, 2018
The Kindness of Human Contact
On a recent family vacation to BC, we witnessed polite but dishevelled panhandlers plying their trade amidst the more decidedly destitute...
- Mar 1, 2018
An Unexpected Encounter
I want to share a short, but quite wonderful, blessing I received from my street-engaged friend named ‘Bob.’ When you are on the streets,...
- Feb 22, 2018
Conversation at the Drop-In
“I’ve been on my own a long time. I left home when I was 10. Been on my own ever since.” Edward told me this as we sat together in the...
- Jan 11, 2018
“Mountains” | a Poem by Street Poet ‘Stan’
Some seem helpless and solely dependent upon one or more of the many institutions, like Ottawa Innercity Ministries (OIM), whose support...
- Dec 25, 2017
A Homeless Vet’s Journey: Hear Kurk In His Own Words, Part 1
Our Christmas Story this year took us on a journey with Kurk, a homeless Vet, who lost everything. We walked alongside him as he tried to...
- Nov 23, 2017
Finding purpose in low places
Despite these dark – and unimaginable – circumstances, Frankl emerged still holding onto hope. His rationale, as he explains in the book,...
- Oct 26, 2017
Making a Difference In The Midst of Adversity – Is It Possible?
I see it each Sunday night in the stylish clothes some people wear or the cars others don’t have. It’s visible in their health or...
- Sep 22, 2017
She is Not Unknown
You see her every day on your way to work. Usually she is sitting at Tim Horton’s or resting on a bench. She is hard to miss – a small...
- Sep 7, 2017
One evening, while on street outreach…
Later that evening, my young street outreach partner and I met 52 street friends. They represented all facets of this diverse culture;...
- Aug 24, 2017
It’s the small things in life that matter
But it is the mundane, the everyday events, that can have the biggest impact. My role at the drop-in is that of a greeter. Some say it is...
- Aug 10, 2017
Just a couple of Canadians (eh?), talking on the bus.
It happened as I got on the bus & looked around for an empty spot. “There she is!” I heard someone say. It was Ted. He was sitting alone....
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