Helping People Where They’re at with Souls Harbour Rescue Mission
Souls Harbour Rescue Mission offers a variety of crucial services in the Regina and Moose Jaw areas through food, shelter and clothing assistance.
“We aim to help people where they’re at,” explains Kathy Ingram, Director of Finance and Development at Souls Harbour. She goes on to say, “if someone comes to us and they need a meal, we have a meal. We have clothes for them and we can work with them to find shelter. We help them through their life changes and offer addictions support, too.”
Souls Harbour has witnessed a change in the past two to three years. While they still see many of the same people coming in to use their services, they have noticed a new crowd emerging. Now they are seeing more middle class and working people who are coming in for free meals, in need of clothing, and using their services in a variety of ways. Ingram explains that this is an additional group of people who didn’t seek their services before, but need them now because their money isn’t stretching as far as it used to.
Souls Harbour is at capacity with most of their services. They see 200 to 250 people in Regina per day and 60 to 75 people in Moose Jaw per day for supper. They are also at capacity for their affordable housing for seniors.
“Right now we have no space in our affordable housing units. We’re full, so anyone who is coming for housing ends up on a wait list. We aren’t in a position to expand, but we try to help as many people at their point of need as we can.”
Shayil Home is a three year women’s addictions recovery program managed by Souls Harbour where they work with women to become sober, reconnect with their children and families, receive education and employment training, and reintegrate back into society. While it is an effective program to help women better their lives, the capacity to deliver the service remains low.
“... we have space for six women and their children in our addictions program. We’re not talking about huge numbers at once, but we see impressive results through the program. If someone calls and we are at capacity, we put them on a wait list, but by that point it is too late. They need help right now when they contact us.”
Souls Harbour is currently working towards aging infrastructure solutions for their Moose Jaw and area services. Ingram says, “in Regina our infrastructure is fine, but in Moose Jaw we are in the process of a new building project. Our building in Moose Jaw is old and is falling apart. It is absolutely beyond what we should expect anybody to go to for help.”
A new building in Moose Jaw will mean they can help more people, provide more shelter spaces, and use proper equipment.
“We could have an actual commercial kitchen in Moose Jaw with all the equipment that is necessary. We could much better serve the people who need it in the area. And if we can have a food distribution centre, we could increase capacity not only for us, but also to share food with food banks across the region and make a bigger impact, together.”
