THE BRIDGE OFFERS NEW PROGRAMMING
Non-profit plans life skills classes, prayer room in renovated space
The Bridge on 20th Fellowship Centre is a faith-based, non-profit that began in March of 1999. Over the years, it has operated from several different locations, but in October of 2016, The Bridge opened at its new permanent home at 1008 20th Street. Since then, it has been in the process of totally refurbishing the building, with the project moving ahead as financial support made it possible. The renovations are now complete and The Bridge is about to roll out programs and services that have only been a dream to this point.
Despite renovations, it’s been business as usual at the centre. In the past year, The Bridge served 58,000 meals, 146,000 cups of coffee, gave out 5 tonnes of clothing, and utilized over 8,000 volunteer hours.
Founder and director Linda Walker says the Bridge ministers to the family unit with food, clothing, haircuts and showers, prayer, spiritual Christian ministry, and support.
“Monday through Thursday we serve breakfast and lunch, and give out clothing and hygiene items. After paying their rent, our visitors rarely have enough money left over to buy such items. Toiletries are definitely a luxury; sometimes, so is food.”
The new facility has two shower stalls where visitors can clean up with soap, a towel, and a change of clean used clothing. Once a month a hair stylist comes in and does free haircuts. Walker says the lineups are always long.
The Bridge has a program of scheduled evening events including kids’ club, men’s night, women’s night, youth night, and Bible study, as well as a Sunday service. All are well attended.
The building reno has been undertaken in two phases. The first saw the kitchen, dining room and office wing completed. The second phase includes teaching and education rooms plus space for life skills programming.
“We will offer instruction in sewing, crafting, and finishing work on wood projects,” Walker says. "The goal is to provide opportunity for our visitors to have rewarding, meaningful activities to be involved in during the day, activities that will develop skills and vocational training.
“We have 10 sewing machines, including an industrial machine, a serger and an embroidery machine, plus a ton of raw materials for sewing and crafting. We also have a volunteer to teach people to use the machines to produce useful products.”
Plans are in the works for various types of crafts, including cardmaking.
“For the past 10 years, ladies have been making greeting cards at The Bridge. They so look forward to doing this,” Walker says. “Besides having something meaningful to do, the women feel they’re giving back. We keep track, and when an individual has attended a certain number of times, they receive a gift card as incentive.”
One room at the centre will house a store to sell the goods produced. The proceeds will go to support the programs and operation of The Bridge.
The new phase also has teaching rooms where curriculum subjects like anger management, addictions recovery, sustainability, and Christianity 101 will be taught. Something that is garnering wider community interest is education on addictions and the reasons people use drugs, along with tools to monitor progress or regression on the post-recovery journey.
One of Walker’s long-term goals has been to have a place where prayer is available 24/7. The Prayer Room at The Bridge will soon be ready, but Walker says the prayer program will need volunteer involvement from the Christian community of Saskatoon.
“Having a place where people could go to pray and receive prayer 24/7 has been a goal of mine since I gave my life to Christ twenty-some years ago,” she says. “I was living in this same neighbourhood at the time and saw that you could get drugs 24/7, alcohol 24/7, sex 24/7, and you could gamble 24/7, but there was no place to get prayer for 7, let alone 24/7. I wanted to establish a place where people could come 24/7 to pray for this neighbourhood and the city.”
Walker says the mandate of The Bridge is not to facilitate people where they are, but to come alongside them, meet them where they are, accept them as they are, and share Christ’s unconditional love with them.
“Jesus loves us too much to leave us where we are,” she says. “He provides ways to enable us to change.”
With programming in full swing, there are many more opportunities for volunteers, who are, Walker says, critical to the work and ministry of The Bridge.
Being faith-based and not-forprofit, the centre depends solely on donations. “In the 19 years we’ve been in operation,” Walker says, “the Lord has been more than faithful, providing all we’ve needed to keep on going.”
For more information on The Bridge, call 306-382-2855 or visit www.thebridgesaskatoon.com.