Below is a collection of videos showcasing the Housing First Program’s perspective with Indigenous Participants, as well as a video series highlighting coordinated local efforts to ensure our neighbours’ safety, health, and warmth during the pandemic.
If you have any questions about any of these materials, please contact us.
The video ‘Perspectives on the Housing First Program by Indigenous Participants’ is based on a play, created from a research project. It is an innovative approach to sharing the stories and experiences of individuals on personal journeys from circumstances of homelessness to living in their own homes with supports from Homeward Trust’s Housing First Support Program.
Homeward Trust Edmonton has been honoured to partner with Blue Quills First Nations College on this project, and with our partner agencies providing supports for community members in the Housing First Support Program. This project would not be possible without the support of our funders, The Government of Canada and the Government of Alberta.
In the fall of 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic, the Edmonton Convention Centre was opened as a 24/7 emergency accommodation space and operated by local partnering agencies. While this response faced some significant challenges, there were also some great triumphs. This video series highlights this local coordinated effort to keep our neighbours safe, healthy and warm.
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Videos made in partnership with Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society, Bissell Centre, Boyle Street Community Services, The Mustard Seed, the City of Edmonton, Edmonton Convention Centre and Homeward Trust. Video production by PlanIT Sound.
Episode One – Mobilizing for Winter
With cold winter weather looming, and reduced shelter capacity in the local sector as a result of COVID-19 spacing requirements, there was an emergent need to provide shelter and safety from the outside elements for people experiencing homelessness.
Episode Two – More Than Just a Name
Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society brought Indigenous culture to those at the 24/7 emergency accommodation space, allowing some to experience their own culture for the first time. This connectedness to one’s culture is a powerful step in their healing journey.
Episode Three – Outbreak
Boyle Street Community Services led Tipinawâw’s medical response to COVID-19, providing PPE, showers, wound care, and harm reduction services on-site. They developed a contact tracing system and helped clients access COVID-19 tests and isolation spaces. As COVID-19 cases rose across the province , measures at Tipinawâw helped slow the spread of COVID-19.
Episode Four – Breaking the Cycle
Tipinawâw provided people experiencing homelessness with a warm, safe place to go over the fall and winter months. The 24/7 emergency accommodation space at the Edmonton Convention Centre did so much more than that; it also brought housing services to where people were at in their journey out of homelessness.
Episode Five – Tomorrow
The final video of this series explores how the City and partner agencies came together quickly to help people experiencing homelessness during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. What were the lessons learned? What will it take to end homelessness in Edmonton? We are all stronger as a community when we are not leaving anyone behind.
In March 2020, when regular daytime drop-in programs paused or reduced capacity to accommodate physical distancing, Edmonton’s homeless-serving sector opened a single location for our City’s most vulnerable to access programs and services in a safe environment.
This video series highlights the stories of community coming together in a collaborative response to protect people experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Funding support from the Government of Canada’s Reaching Home program, the Government of Alberta – Ministry of Community and Social Services and the City of Edmonton. Videos made in partnership with Bissell Centre, Boyle Street Community Services, Boyle McCauley Health Centre, and Homeward Trust. Video production by PlanIT Sound.
Episode One – The Day Services
Take a tour through the Day Drop-In programs and services which were temporarily relocated to a single location. Learn about this emergency response and how a sector came together for a single purpose – keeping people safe and supported through the pandemic.
Episode Two – Isolation Centre
The second episode of this series is a walk through the Isolation Shelter, a temporary facility that was set up to provide screening, testing, health services and self isolation space for Edmonton’s most vulnerable people during the COVID-19 public health crisis.
Episode Three – A Way Home
In the third episode of this series, we hear from Rob, a Drop-In Centre program participant, about his recent journey accessing services, support and ultimately being housed during the pandemic.
Episode Four – Behind the Data
Highlighted here is the key role Edmonton’s innovative and data-driven systems play in supporting and moving people out of homelessness, and how these systems have been able to adapt during the pandemic.
Episode One – A Safe Space
The quick, sector-wide response of more than 20 organizations and all levels of government, led to impactful frontline efforts that provided a much-needed safe space for those experiencing homelessness in Edmonton during the pandemic. While the Expo Centre was a short-term solution to provide these supports and services, the work of keeping this vulnerable population safe continues.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We recognize we are gathered, in collaboration and with joint purpose, on Treaty 6 territory. This territory is the home and gathering place for diverse Indigenous peoples. The Cree, Blackfoot, Métis, Nakota Sioux, Iroquois, Dene, Inuit, and many others. We know the importance of the Treaty and our responsibility to these communities and that only in partnership can we create the social change necessary to end homelessness. It is vital that we meaningfully engage and partner with Indigenous people and communities in this work. It is important to recognize and address the conditions brought forth by colonialism. Displacement from traditional homelands, systemic racism, residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, and the ongoing overrepresentation of Indigenous people in child welfare, correctional systems, and homelessness are responsibilities we all share.