Risk & Business Magazine Lloyd Sadd Insurance Brokers Fall 2015 | Page 8

R
&
B

Community Feature: Bissell
Bissell Centre Launches Outreach Housing Team
to Get More People Off the Streets

I

n early September, Bissell Centre
launched an Outreach Housing Team
whose mandate is to locate and house
people who are homeless. The team will
work in areas of the city where homeless
people gather and who are typically hard
to reach. The goal is to house 250 people
every year, which will help double the
number of homeless people they house to
500 annually.
The new Outreach Housing Team
is an important addition to Bissell
Centre’s Housing Services Programs,
which includes Homeless to Homes
(H2H) and Community Bridge. Bissell
Centre will have the capacity to house
approximately 250 chronically homeless
people every year through H2H, which
asserts that housing should be provided
before addressing other conditions in
an individual’s life by providing stable
housing.

Bissell Centre’s Community Bridge
program aims to prevent homelessness by
stopping imminent evictions by providing
financial support and intervention
services for people at risk of becoming
homeless. In one year, they provided
services to 266 individuals ensuring that
they were not evicted and stayed housed.
The Outreach Housing Team has formed
valuable partnerships with the Neighbour
Centre, Edmonton Public Library,
Homeward Trust’s Coordinated Intake
Workers, All Saints’ Cathedral, and other
organizations to ensure the team is
engaging with as many homeless people
as they can. Also, the Outreach Housing
Team provides follow-up support which
is there to troubleshoot challenges
for participants, and offer additional
resources and services as need requires.

Funding for the Outreach Housing Team
was initiated by the Strathcona High
School Leadership Program through
their Treehouse Project fundraiser in
early 2015. The students raised $190,000,
which shattered their fundraising goal
and gave Bissell Centre the opportunity
to expand the size and reach of their
Outreach Housing Team.
Bissell Centre has added additional funds
and are currently fundraising for this
initiative to ensure ongoing viability of
this important service. If you wish to
help Bissell Centre keep this program
going, please donate online at: donate.
bissellcentre.org.
For more information about the team,
please visit their website at: bissellcentre.
org/outreach-housing-team.

“Without a home, one’s future is dim. Housing homeless people is a
first and key step in helping them to address other challenges in their
lives, such as mental illness, addictions, and unemployment”. 
— Bissell Centre’s CEO, Mark Holmgren
8

TM FALL 2015
RISK & BUSINESS MAGAZINETM