MAKING A DIFFERENCE FOR OTTAWA’S HOMELESS
This past October, an idea occurred to Tanya O’Connor. How about getting a few friends together, collect some gently used purses, fill them with toiletries from hotel visits, and hand them out to homeless women in Ottawa?
O’Connor mentioned the idea to a few friends who quickly got on board. She then posted the plan on a popular Facebook site, Ladies Who Lunch (Ottawa), and the news spread like wildfire.
Project Purse Ottawa was born and in a week the Facebook group went from 17 followers to more than 150. Posters were circulated about the project on Facebook, Twitter and sites such as Freecycle and Trashnothing. A colleague offered to make a YouTube video. By early November, more than 400 people were involved and the purses and toiletries started to pour in. Six companies across the city offered their storefronts as drop-off locations and were soon inundated by donations from individuals, school groups, corporations and entire government departments. Two extreme couponers joined the group and collected more than 200 toothbrushes, toothpaste, throat lozenges and similar items.
More than 40 people helped out on the Nov. 22 packing day in space provided by the City of Ottawa. Just over 400 purses were stuffed with hygiene products, as well as donated socks and mitts. Each purse also contained a “kindness note” written by members’ kids and a Girl Guide troupe. O’Connor and a small team spent most of the next week visiting six women’s shelters to drop off the purses. To maintain their privacy, the shelters then distributed the purses to their clients. At each drop-off, the team would usually meet the shelter manager and learn more about work they do with women in need.
According to O’Connor, “The best reaction that we heard in all our drop-offs was at 510 Rideau. We were having a tour upstairs with the executive director and a woman who had missed the initial handout was given a purse. We heard a really loud WOOHOO all the way upstairs!”
Purses and toiletries can still be dropped off at White Cross Pharmacy on Elgin and Soulful Tattoos on St. Joseph Boulevard. Early in the new year, another wave of purses will be delivered to the shelters. Project Purse Ottawa is also looking for a sponsor to help it develop keychain cards printed with emergency numbers to put in the purses.
When the purses were sorted and delivered, O’Connor might have taken a well-deserved break. But in November she was one of many thousands of people who saw a photo on Facebook of winter jackets tied to street poles in downtown Halifax. Notes attached to the winter clothing said, “I am not lost! If you are stuck out in the cold, please take me to keep warm.” So Project Winter Warmth Ottawa was born and has similarly taken off across social media.
About 75 people are taking part and so far about 40 coats have been donated along with gloves, hats, hot packs and scarves. By the end of December, they hope to have 200 coats.
O’Connor said they will attach plastic bags with coats and other items, such as hygiene products and snacks, on poles and trees in areas of Ottawa with a high number of homeless men and women. The group plans to do a blitz in January because people who are homeless and have addiction issues can often fall through the cracks at that time. The main shelters will be alerted as to where the bags will be left.
When asked why she devotes so much time to these projects, O’Connor said, “I started and run projects like Project Purse and Project Winter Warmth because I grew up spending some of the most wonderful and insightful times of my childhood with my dad on the streets of Sudbury doing good things for the homeless. He taught us kindness isn’t just a thing you do; it’s a part of who you are.”
People all over Ottawa have offered their homes and businesses as drop-off locations. You can drop gently used, wearable winter clothing and accessories, as well as duct tape and large, clear plastic bags, at Manotick Natural Market or Soulful Creations Tattoo Studio (Orléans). You can also get more information on drop-off spots via the Project Ottawa group page on Facebook.