Group collaboration ensures donations are more effectively used

Carrie Marston
Special to Spur Ottawa

Respond Ottawa and The Alliance to End Homelessness have teamed up to create the Ottawa Giving Project. They hope this new collaboration will strengthen struggling support agencies and funnel donations to where they are most needed.

“When we realized that homelessness has increased by over 50 percent in our city [during COVID], we reached out to our contacts at The Alliance to End Homelessness to identify the greatest needs,” explains Donna Boisvert, a member of the Respond Ottawa team. “We quickly formed a task force to assist frontline organizations.”

COVID restrictions forced many organizations to stop collecting donations from the public. The restrictions also limited agencies’ ability to recruit volunteers and staff to sort through donations.

“The intent of the Ottawa Giving Project is to solve three shortcomings in our current donation system: waste, inconvenience, and inequitable distribution,” says Avery Parkinson, an anti-poverty advocate working on the project. “We want to facilitate communication between agencies and donors.”

To do this, the Ottawa Giving Project created a list of items that agencies need now or expect to need in the near future. They also set up a platform for agencies to identify what they need and in what quantities, to better coordinate donation distribution.

“People want to help, but they don’t know how. Respond Ottawa makes partnerships positive, practical, and helpful.” Photo courtesy of the Ottawa Giving Project.

These donations might otherwise not be used, Parkinson explains. The arrangement ensures no one homeless shelter is overwhelmed with resources while smaller centres are left without. It also prevents situations where centres end up turning away donations that can be used elsewhere in the city.

This brings an opportunity for churches to work together to support local agencies that serve Ottawa’s homeless and low-income communities, and that is where Respond Ottawa stepped in. With support from Ottawa churches, they are collecting, sorting, and delivering donations where they are needed most.

“People want to help, but they don’t know how or they have well-intended ideas, but these ideas don’t always fill a need that is helpful,” says Kaite Burkholder Harris, executive director of the Alliance to end Homelessness. “Respond Ottawa makes partnerships positive, practical, and helpful.”

The primary needs are new and gently-used winter clothing (for men, women, and youth) and personal hygiene items. The Metropolitan Bible Church and Community Pentecostal Church are acting as collection points for churches and individuals who want to donate.

Respond Ottawa is also asking churches and believers to pray for this initiative, and that it will unite churches to share the love of Christ through practical needs. In addition, they are collecting financial donations that will be used to purchase items the agencies need.

“This is not a solution to homelessness,” Burkholder Harris clarifies, “but rather a band aid because of the decrease of services. Affordable housing would benefit the homeless population, but for now we’re filling immediate needs.”