Bradford’s ‘Out of the Cold Café’ is gearing up to reopen full-time this fall starting Nov. 1 but is in need of more volunteers to keep its doors open.
The café (located at 31 Frederick St.) is a non-profit centre that caters to the homeless sector and provides a warm, safe place for those needing retreat during the colder months. They offer food and drinks daily (supplied by local restaurant sponsors) as well access to computers and printers for housing and job searches.
Current volunteers that have been part of the Out of the Cold Café’s core team since it opened last fall, have received basic training on how to interact with vulnerable clients and are described as "a small army of really passionate people".
“Our frontline volunteers greet people at the front desk and do a Covid-screening. Then we have kitchen/café volunteers who serve food and coffee beverages,” explains Jodi Greenstreet, founder of the Bradford Out of the Cold Café. “Then we have the ‘talkers’ (connectors) who engage with people and listen to their stories.”
She adds that all volunteers are trained to help with faxing, scanning documents, and navigating clients through the social service systems such as ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program) or Ontario Works.
“If you’re interested in learning, this is something that is very teachable,” expresses Greenstreet about the online support systems.
During Covid, the shelter systems moved to a motel-model to help accommodate people safely. Those motels were able to house more people than what the shelters were able to handle (many of the shelters are located in Barrie for all of Simcoe-County region).
Greenstreet shares, those accommodations are coming to an end soon.
“The struggle now is that (the motel-system) was never a long-term solution, it was never sustainable,” notes Greenstreet. “So, those clients are being encouraged to go back to their regular facilities (shelters).. but the shelters are already at capacity.”
Greenstreet adds that the current housing crisis coupled with mental health issues (which have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic), services provided by non-profits such as the café are in more demand now than they were the previous year.
“Health lines increased over 1000 per cent when Covid hit, those were some of the numbers that were surfacing,” shares Greenstreet, who is also a member of SCATEH (Simcoe County Alliance to End Homelessness). “Mental health is a huge factor right now for so many people in this sector. So, the combination of those things – housing crisis, mental health – there’s a lot of people living ‘rough’ in greater numbers, which means outside. So, when the snow flies and the cold weather hits, where do they go?”
According to a survey from 2020 commissioned by the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH), five per cent of Canadians have been homeless in the last year (which translates to 1.6 million Canadians), while another thirty-one per cent know someone who has been homeless recently.
At the Alliston Out of the Cold Café (now known as S.H.I.F.T, ‘Support and Hope for Individuals and Families Today) there are only eight available shelter beds for all of South Simcoe, a reality that Greenstreet says is a ‘crisis’.
“The (Bradford) café is trying to serve some of the daytime hours where they can go in between, but those people who need beds that are right off the street, that’s where we send them,” notes Greenstreet.
During the Bradford café’s previous season, daytime hours ran from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. but with these new challenges Greenstreet raises, the café will be flexing those hours based on the needs and increase of new clients this year.
“We have people come in that don’t have a cell phone or access to the internet, so we can provide them with a phone and a number to call, and encourage them and help them and give them a coffee and some food,” she says. “And at night, our only option is to send them to the Alliston café for overnight.”
The Alliston shelter is in its 4th season and just received charitable status last year, and has been mentoring the Bradford café since they opened. The two organizations have shared their resources over the past year, including Alliston's outreach workers who aid the Bradford center twice a week.
“Outreach workers will drive around the streets and go into the bush (looking to speak with the homeless) and meet with people at the hotels to help them with harm reduction and housing supports,” she explains, adding they will also give out some necessities such as sleeping bags.
The Bradford Out of the Cold Cafe's program ends its full-time status on April 30, 2022, and Greenstreet shares the café’s core team have been praying for a budget or hotel vouchers that will help them get through those months.
If interested in sponsoring or volunteering at the Bradford Out of the Cold Café, email: [email protected]
Please note: a vulnerable sector police check will be required as well as a volunteer application filled out by each applicant. Training will be both online and in-person.
