In from the cold

Need for service for marginalized people steady throughout the year

With winter having arrived in all but name, the prospect of braving the weather is a highly unpleasant one.

One would think the demand for somewhere to stay would increase in the winter, but that’s not necessarily the case, notes Open Arms shelter coordinator Cindy Southall.

There is always a strong demand for the services the organization provides — in any season.

“We’ve had people who were sleeping in tents, which is just as dangerous when its 30 degrees outside, as it is in subzero temperatures,” Southall said. “I don’t think the cold weather is an indicator. We’ve had a lot of people staying since the minute we opened our doors the very first night.”

Although Open Arms is based in Kentville, it serves guests from a far wider area.

“We’ve had guests from as far down as Digby, and we’ve had people this side of Halifax coming this way, because there aren’t enough beds in Halifax,” Southall said.

Halifax isn’t even the furthest area from which people have come to stay with Open Arms. Southall noted that recently, guests from as far as the Prairie provinces have availed themselves of the hospitality of Open Arms.

The life situations of people whom Open Arms helps are as diverse as their ages, with the homeless, the near-homeless, and the “working poor” walking in its doors regularly, throughout the year.

Southall keeps statistics on those who come to Open Arms. She said the main demographic the shelter used to help was teenagers to adults in their mid-to-late-twenties. That age is skewing upwards, with this year alone seeing three people in their seventies seeking the organization’s help.

“There are no other options, so demographics are changing, and we’re starting to get older people,” Southall said. “We also have the same people come here, year after year, because they can’t get an apartment.”

VOLUNTEER POWER

Southall and Vickie Campbell, the community navigator coordinator with Open Arms, stressed that volunteers are the backbone of the outreach effort of Open Arms. A best-case scenario for Southall and Campbell would be a situation in which they’d have enough volunteers to help year-round.

“Our greatest need right now is more volunteers,” Southall noted. “We would love to have the place open every night if we had the volunteers.”

Volunteers work at every level, from the shelter’s breakfast program to the Inn From the Cold program, which gives people a place to stay at night.

Open Arms offers breakfast every morning, but, with the exception of drop-in programs, doesn’t open up again until 9:30 p.m.

“A lot of people don’t have anywhere else to go in the daytime,” Southall said.

To offset this, many people who seek Open Arms’ services take refuge in the nearby Tim Hortons. It’s for that reason that Open Arms encourages people to donate gift cards for the coffee shop chain.

“That gives people at least an hour before they have to go back out in the cold,” she said.

Both Southall and Campbell noted donations of any kind are encouraged, throughout the year.

BLUE MONDAY BLUES

Although there is always a great deal of need in the community, one particular time when people who need help are hit hardest is in the winter — in the weeks and months after Christmas.

Southall and Campbell said that while the community truly shows its generosity during the Christmas season, donations peter off after that period — and the need is still there.

“People are so generous at Christmas with clothes, mittens and hats — the community is wonderful,” Campbell said. “But people are struggling by the time they get to February. They have power they need to pay for, and food. There’s a need in those hard winter months.”

Southall agreed, noting that the months immediately after Christmas can be “dark.”

“We serve between 40 to 60 people breakfast six days a week,” Southall said. “Most of those people aren’t homeless, they just can’t afford breakfast in their homes.”

Above all, at any time of year, Southall and Campbell stressed how grateful they are for the generosity of the community, whether it be through volunteer hours, donations or participation in events like the Coldest Night of the Year.