Spirit of Hope

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This article was published 05/01/2022 (1535 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This article was curated by editors from the Free Press advertising department.

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At a time when most businesses and non-profits were scaling back, Main Street Project staff knew they not only had to maintain pre-pandemic frontline services, they had to expand them for vulnerable people in the community. 

Along with its emergency shelter, Main Street Project (MSP) offers food, detoxification, health advocacy, case management, housing support and a Van Patrol mobile community outreach program. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the main challenge was to provide physical distancing for a high-risk clientele. Initially, that meant decreasing shelter space from 75 mats to 25 at the old Martha Street facility. However, a generous donation of space at the Levy’s Leathers building at 190 Disraeli Fwy. allowed for an expansion to 250 safely distanced spaces. MSP also opened the first isolation units for the homeless community in Manitoba. 

These life-saving efforts required MSP to nearly double its staff. 

In December 2020, the social agency was able to move to its newly renovated facility in the former Mitchell Fabrics building at the corner of Main Street and Logan Avenue. In January 2021, Jamil Mahmood came on board as executive director, bringing more than 15 years of community and outreach experience to the role. 

The Van Patrol outreach program also grew during this period. It takes a multi-pronged approach, staffed with a peer who has lived experience, a caseworker to support rapid rehousing, and a support worker to facilitate the distribution of supplies. In addition to crisis and emergency response, the Van Patrol carries out wellness checks for people living in homeless encampments and bus shelters, often during extreme weather.

The Van Patrol also delivered more than 1,500 vaccines to the community, administered by primary-care doctors and nurses.

“The van is such a great tool to support unsheltered Winnipeggers, just by meeting them where they’re at on the street and having conversations,” explains Mahmood.

During the pandemic, MSP has relied on social media to increase visibility, foster community engagement, and draw support for initiatives like Socktober, which brought in well over 1,000 pairs of socks.

“When you support us, you can see our work happening, you can hear directly from our staff, see where your clothing donations are going and where your dollars go,” says Mahmood. 

MSP also uses its social platforms to combat stigma and misinformation around homelessness and its causes. 

“It’s really important that we’re also using our platform to uplift the people we work with and educate Winnipeggers as a whole.” 

MSP will mark 50 years in 2022 and Mahmood is looking ahead to the next five years with optimism. The agency’s strategic five-year plan deals with issues such as harm reduction, Truth and Reconciliation, and anti-oppression. 

Rather than take a reactive approach to harm reduction, MSP aims to foster safety and change the narrative around substance use. It acknowledges the need for more support for the city’s Indigenous organizations and populations, and there’s a push to increase Indigenous representation on staff — and to make it safe to work in an environment where they deal with trauma daily. 

More broadly, Main Street Project seeks to eliminate oppression and racism in all areas of service. The ultimate goal is to end homelessness in Winnipeg, largely by remaining housing-focused. It’s not about building bigger shelters or adding more beds, but rather creating housing options to transition people out of shelters. 

Mahmood says fostering a spirit of support and collaboration among the city’s helping organizations is also key.

“No one group can solve homelessness on their own, so we need to all work together. Building that collaboration into all of our goals so we’re working collectively on the same outcomes is important.”