Our Place News

Thanks For Help During Relocation

Our Place is grateful and gives thanks to the Salvation Army and Streetlink for assisting our community and Our Place during our time of transition.

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Drop-In Centre Re-location

We would like to thank the Vancouver Island Health Authority for funding weekend operations over the past two years and BC Housing for funding the emergency night shelter in extreme weather over the past winter, enabling us to house an average of 52 people on 67 frosty nights between November and February.

Our Place is grateful to Cool Aid and AIDS Vancouver Island for allowing us to rent their facility on Johnson Street for the past two years and would also like to express thanks to the Johnson Street business community for their support as neighbours.

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Upper Room Building Comes Down

To make way for our courtyard and driveway the old Upper Room building was demolished. Check back soon for demolition pictures!!!

UR Demolition

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Our Place Part Of The VICOT TEAM

Vicot Team

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Thanks!!!

We would like offer heartfelt thanks to those who helped this Christmas season. Without the support of those who cared we couldn’t have handed out 1,000 Angel gifts to our innercity family, hosted a fun filled Christmas party, fed over 500 people for our end of year feast. Thank you for your ongoing support.

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Our Place Society 2007 Annual Report

OUR MISSION: Our Place Society (OPS) works in compassionate Christian love with those who are homeless and others in need to enrich and improve the lives of all.

OPS, the Alliance of the Open Door Inner City Ministry and the Upper Room Society, continues its three core activities – drop-in centre, transitional housing and meal service.

BOARD: There were two resignations from the Board during 2007 (Larry Scyner and Karen Preston) and the addition of two new members - Linda Rae Barry and Donald Storch. The continuing Board members are Dennis Anholt, Ruth Elvey, Don Fletcher (Vice Chair), Paul Jenkins, Bruce Jordan (Secretary), Elmarie Roberts (Recording Secretary), John Ronald (Chair), Michael Shepherd, Gordon Sloan, and Dawn Williamson. Rev. Allen Tysick, Executive Director, and Rev. David Stewart, Director of Operations, also attend board meetings.

Last year’s report commented that ‘facilitating the transition from two separate locations into the purpose-built new facility is a major and complex task’ which will ‘dominate priorities during 2007’. This was most certainly the case. 2007 was a year of very hard work for everyone involved with OPS. The hard work is by no means over but we can look back on 2007 as a year of substantial achievement. The new building is completed. Also, major progress was made in establishing Our Place as a distinct entity in the eyes of the public, our donors and supporters, our employees and the clients we serve.

MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS:

The construction of the new building at 919 Pandora Avenue was completed and OPS took possession on November 25th. Our own assessment and that of the inner city family and visitors is that the building is excellent and will serve the community well.
The Upper Room (UR) building was vacated on December 12th. The same day, the first residents moved into the new building and meal service commenced there.
Deconstruction of the UR building has begun and is expected to be completed by mid-March.
During this period, the drop-in centre will continue at 713 Johnson St. We anticipate completion of the courtyard on the site of the UR space by the end of March 2008. Transfer of the drop-in centre to 919 Pandora will follow.
An Opening Ceremony will be held in either late March or early April.
There have been many personnel changes and additions in order properly to staff the new building including the hiring of Karen Preston as Director of Finance and Administration.
As of November 1st, all employees formerly with the Open Door or the Upper Room became employees of OPS. This essentially completed the integration of the two organizations into one.
There have been a multitude of projects undertaken and completed in order to create one new organization, Our Place, out of the two founding organizations and also to complete the construction project. These include the development of position descriptions and a revised organization chart, new Human Resources Policies and Procedures, the creation of a Transition Working Group to assist with the new building project, finalization of the loan/mortgage agreement with BC Housing, and completion of an agreement with Vancouver Island Health Authority for operating funds.
An operating agreement between OPS and the United Church of Canada has been developed and will be signed early in 2008.
While all this has been going on, OPS has continued its ‘normal’ activities. The drop-in centre has continued to operate, including participation in the Cold Weather Protocol in effect in downtown Victoria during the winter. Our meal facility continues to serve in excess of 100,000 meals a year, while our transitional housing provided space for 45 different people during 2007. Special First Nations Days were held at the drop-in centre in the fall, and our annual Christmas Party was held at First†Metropolitan United Church in December. Over 1,000 ANGEL GIFTS were distributed to the needy of Victoria before Christmas. Our year ended serving our traditional New Year’s Eve turkey dinner to 531 grateful diners.

As always, we are extremely grateful for the diligent work of our employees and our many volunteers. We appreciate the generosity of all our donors and supporters who provide the resources to make it all happen. And lastly we acknowledge with great thanks the encouragement and counsel of the Victoria Presbytery of the United Church of Canada.

Respectfully submitted,

John Ronald
Chairperson, Our Place Society

Jan. 2, 2008

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Our Place Launches New Program to Help End Hunger

On September 18, Our Place Soup Kitchen at 919 Pandora Ave.( formerly The Upper Room) has launched a new program with the support of Thrifty Foods. Help End Hunger Vouchers will be available at all Thrifty stores in the Greater Victoria area.

The concept of Help End Hunger Vouchers is simple. A customer adds $2.,$ 5. or $10. to their grocery bill at the check out. The money goes into an account which allows Our Place to select the food we need to meet the nutritional needs of the homeless. The customer gets a voucher which they can send into the Our Place Office for a tax receipt. This is a win win situation for both the customer, Our Place and those eating at Our Place Soup Kitchen.

Help End Hunger

The Our Place Soup Kitchen currently serves over 300 meals a day and also offers special festive meals for Thanksgiving, New Year’s, Easter. We will use the monies donated to purchase what we need: fresh vegetables and grains for soup, meat for dinners, bread for sandwiches, coffee, milk, and whatever else we need in a given week.

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June 24, 2007 Times Colonist Spread

Check out our four page spread in the June 24, 2007 edition of the Victoria Times Colonist. You'll find lots of information about the history of our 2 parent organizations, The Open Door and The Upper Room.

The "Our Family" portraits art show and sale were a great success.

Download and read the pdf files. They are large and may download slowly.