Going strong after 10 years

After ten years, Milton Transitional Housing is still going, growing and graduating clients from its program. The website URL changed to https://mthmilton.ca

We continue to support what we started through the annual Coldest Night of the Year. It raised another $50k this year (2020) in the weeks before we entered into lockdown with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Milton Transitional Housing charity has now impacted 55 people, with 15 families so far graduating from the program after a two-year term. It has provided jobs to the staff running the charity and mobilized thousands of volunteers across the community. https://mthmilton.ca/

A new online presence for MTH

MTH has been a story. The story began with a Champion article and this blog, in 2008. Others have evolved it into the sustainable organisation it is today supporting those in a housing crisis in the Milton community. 

This blog is now superseded by an onsite blog on the new responsive Milton Transitional Housing website.

"The site looks awesome! Simple and clean in its design, and easy to navigate," said Editor of the Champion, Catherine O'Hara, describing the new website

Take a tour of the new website and tell us what you think. We have revamped the Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn account profiles.

Sign up for the new blog notifications

We have invested well over 100-hours to relaunch it. I am grateful to Paul Wilkinson for his work with me on the website development and also Stacey Newman for provided us with the photography. We also want to recognise the incredible dedication of Mary Judge who built the original MTH website and has managed it ever since. Much has changed in the online world since that original website was developed.

Did You Know - Facebook series posts

DID YOU KNOW? - is a wonderful series of posts on the Milton Transitional Housing Facebook page

"The lack of availability and the high cost of rental accommodation in Milton makes it difficult for many households with significant challenges such as family breakup, unemployment, addictions, etc., to find and retain suitable rental housing. In 2013, according to the Milton Community Profile, 15% of Milton households earned less than $40,000/year. At the moment, the going rate for a simple 2-bedroom apartment is at least $1200/month. According the Halton Region, the accepted “affordable” amount a family should pay for housing is a maximum of 30% of gross income. That means that a Milton family must earn $48,000 annually to be able to afford that two-bedroom apartment. Clearly, 15% of Milton families cannot afford basic shelter and also afford to pay for other basic necessities ... like food."

Tangible impact from funds raised

To me this wonderful quote from one of the recent MTH graduates illustrates beautifully that the money raised through grants and donations is making a tangible difference in the lives of people in our community.

Seeing the true impact of transitional housing

Whether we volunteer, donate, provide sponsorship or grants we all want to see that it has a true impact.

This lovely quote from one of our single female graduates wonderful illustrates the positive outcomes that the Milton Transitional Housing program has made in helping someone step up to independence. It provides us all absolutely reassurance that what we are doing is worthwhile and matters.

"Milton Transitional Housing has given me a safe space to reacquaint myself with my strengths and the support to use hem to deal with my problems. The support offered is allowing me to work on my goals (personal and professional) and deal with my challenges without being defined by them."

Photograph courtesy of Stacey Newman

HubSpot donation

Thank you HubSpot for the donation to Milton Transitional Housing. All donations are very much appreciated.

I was lucky enough to write a Customer Story on the global HubSpot blog. As a thank you, HubSpot was kind enough to offer to make a donation to a charity of my choice.

The article described how to write and optimize a blog post in 45 minutes. 

The value of content on the HubSpot blogs is outstanding and a go-to destination for learning best practices in inbound marketing. We are building many of these principles into the new MTH website and social presence that is currently in development. Their inbound methodology has become a movement in its own right and has the potential to help supporters of MTH advocate in our community.

In the Customer Story I recommend several HubSpot tools or courses.

Ryan Bolton true story

Ryan Bolton's cover story in the Canadian Champion prompted this blog, which has now amassed over 32,000 views from 374 posts.

True story

Toronto writer and photographer, Ryan Bolton, and I have just made contact for the first time.

"Let me just start with: thank you.
I used to always say that the reason I write, the reason I tell stories, is that if one person reads something I penned and questions society, questions ideology, or starts a conversation about a topic, I've done my job.
And eight years removed, you just showcased this. On a story I hold near and dear, nonetheless."

Expect us to explore the background to this original article much more. At the time, Bolton was an intern at the Burlington Post back in 2008. Through his own investigation he started to uncover that members of the communities affected by a housing crises were being pushed out of affluent Milton, Burlington and Oakville into Hamilton or Toronto.

Bolton was struck by the fact that in Halton, with almost half a million people, there weren't any resources.

"In an affluent community that has money to spend, they wouldn't on those from poor socio-economic backgrounds." 

It was the September 12, 2008 Champion story written by Bolton that stimulated us to act. There were many challenges and dead-ends in the first few years. We persisted. There is comfort that now 5 individuals or families have graduated from the resulting Milton Transitional Housing program.

Bolton fittingly shared this quote from Robin Williams

"No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world"

VISIT RYAN BOLTON'S WEBSITE 

Where the MTH story began - Canadian Champion

"Homelessness on the rise" 

This was the headline on the September 12, 2008 Milton Canadian Champion which stimulated both this blog and ultimately what became Milton Transitional Housing.

The Champion has graciously provided us permission to include that defining front page on our new website. Their current editor, Catherine O'Hara and I met this morning to chat about this journey.

It is a thrill for all of us involved to see the charity expand to help those at risk of homelessness in our community. The need is real and growing. You are enabling us to make a difference. It has had a profound effect on those people supported through the program.

The new Milton Transitional Housing website is anticipated at the end of June.  It will explore the story of how MTH came about, including the strong sustained support of the Champion.

Image reproduced courtesy of Milton Canadian Champion

800 Empty Bowls and counting

Those who are now the owner's of a shiny new Empty Bowl will have been enriched by the shared experience yesterday in the Milton community.

It was again incredible to see so many contented members of the community, young and old, chatting while enjoying lunch together at the Milton Centre for the Arts.

Empty Bowls has raised well over $40,000 alone since it started, suggesting we have approximately 800 owners of Empty Bowls in our community. Fabulous. Please display your bowl at home so you can tell other people about it.

Brenda Morrow on why Empty Bowls & MTH is important.

It was very much appreciated to see Indira Naidoo-Harris, MPP Halton, proudly clutching her black and red bowl. Indira has been a long time supporter of MTH from the start.

Thank you volunteers

"Thank you all for a wonderfully successful EMPTY BOWLS yesterday! The soup was delicious, and the staff was even better! We really appreciate all you do for Milton Transitional Housing and for working so well together to host this annual event"; added Lorna Turner. 

Thank you sponsors

Your continued and growing support of Empty Bowls and MTH is testament that you also see this issue as important in our community. Your sponsorship is very much appreciated and is making a tangible difference.

Bowl sponsors: Simply Creative & Tree Top Pottery
Food sponsors: The Bistro on Main, Boston Pizza, The Escarpment Tea Room, Gay Lee, Hawthorne Cafe, Kelsey's. La Rose, Mama Mila's cafe, Marquee, Mohawk Chop House, Scooters Catering Shoeless Joe's & Swiss Chalet.

Media sponsors: The Canadian Champion (Inside Halton), Snapd, Ads at Work, Milton Villager & Main25 media.

MTH is a proud recipient of a grant from Ontario Trillium Foundation and is supported by Halton region. Financial grants have also been provided by The Gear Foundation & Oakville & Milton Real Estate Board "Realtors Care Foundation".


Photos courtesy of Stacey Newman. Statistics quoted are estimates.

Lunch is served today at #EmptyBowls2016

Head to the Milton Centre for the Arts to show your support for those at risk of homelessness. You will be supporting the great work of Milton Transitional Housing with your purchase of a designer bowl and gourmet soups.

We welcome you for soup and lunch from 11.30 today.

In the years since the first Empty Bowls event in 2011, Milton Transitional Housing (MTH) has been able to help 9 adults and 7 children through its innovative solution in the Milton community.

The best news we have to give you is that in 2015 we graduated two more successful participants, for a total of five participants or participant families since we started in early 2012. All of our graduates have moved into independent housing they can afford! Currently, MTH has five supported housing units (all full) with immediate plans to increase to seven units by the end of 2016 and to 10 by the end of 2018.

We need your support today to continue this great work.Come down and tell your friends and family. Remember to use #EmptyBowls2016 across all social media. You will find us on Twitter @MiltonTH1

People struggle to provide food for their families and keep a roof over their heads at the same time. MTH helps families and individuals in this terrible predicament by providing bridge accommodation and supportive counselling to people in Milton who are experiencing a housing crisis.

We really appreciate all the work of our amazing volunteers and the restaurants who have again given so generously.

"Should we collaborate?"

Ahead of Sunday's Empty Bowls event a provocative post on whether we have too many homeless charities? 

We reportedly have 3,450 communities in Canada, so should we each support those at risk of homelessness? Is there a risk that we compete with each other for donations and share of voice?

There are examples of big charities merging together. How should we collaborate?

Read the Too many Empty Bowls post here

Use hashtag #EmptyBowls2016

Use #EmptyBowls2016 across all social media

Voices from those at risk of homelessness

We can only help those at risk of homelessness by hearing from them first hand. Here are two stories with just these insights.

Two articles were published in the last week

• Putting a ‘human face’ on poverty in Hamilton: Four personal tales of struggle and hope by Joel OpHardt in The Hamilton Spectator - April 8, 2016

• Putting faces to homelessness by Laurie Snell appeared on the cover of the Kitchener Post - April 7, 2016

Click on the hyperlinks above to go to the online stories.

The Putting a 'human face on poverty in Hamilton interviews four people affected by poverty to hear the challenges they faced and have overcome. These stories were shared at a Voices from the Margins session at McMaster University's Continuing Education Centre.

Putting faces to homelessness describes work by two passionate Waterloo students Justin Chan and Konica Kochar, who have built a tremendous Facebook page called Homeless in Waterloo with real stories.  It demonstrates the power of social media in creating social change.

I encourage you to 'Like' the Homeless in Waterloo Facebook page

Congratulations to the journalists, Kitchener Post and The Hamilton Spectator for sharing these stories. Share the link to this post across your social media accounts.

Photograph reproduced with kind permission from The Hamilton Spectator.

Diagnosis: Poverty - Poverty Tool

Powerful piece relating the consequences of poverty to life expectancy and how proactive family doctors are using tools to address

Read Diagnosis: Poverty by Susan Peters in the April United Church Observer

"In Winnipeg, residents of the city’s wealthiest areas tended to live 18 years longer than residents living in the poorest areas"

 The article cites great examples of poverty tools such as Get Your Benefits in Manitoba. Peters describes how in Toronto where St Michael's Hospital has employed a team to tackle the issue.

"Effectively treating the health consequences of poverty requires more than a pamphlet. To do it properly, already cash-strapped health-care systems may have to fund a range of new programs and jobs"

Peters also refers to a 1991 study that showed an increased life expectancy for Canadian men living in higher-income neighbourhoods.

Read Diagnosis: Poverty by Susan Peters in the April United Church Observer

Susan Peters is a journalist in Winnipeg @susan_peters

It is great to see increasing media highlighting the issue and discussions the ways to address it. We  can surely only be successful through an open collaborative multi-professional approach supporting by the Provinces.

Empty Bowls - April 24

Join us for our important 6th annual EMPTY BOWLS on Sunday, April 24. 

This soup kitchen event is an annual favourite in the community. The funds raised from the event allows MiltonTransitional Housing to support people in our community who are facing homelessness. 

BUY YOUR EMPTY BOWL TICKET HERE

The Empty Bowls lunch will run from 11:30–2:00 at MinMaxx Hall, Milton Centre for the Arts, 1010 Main St E, Milton. 

Enjoy soup from local caterers and restaurants in a ceramic bowl that you choose and then take home afterwards. Tickets are $50/each and include all of the soup you can eat, your bowl, and a charitable tax receipt. Children 12 and under are free with a ticketed adult. 

BUY YOUR EMPTY BOWL TICKET HERE

You can help us promote this event through your own social media accounts. Please. Include @MiltonTH1 and #EmptyBowls2016

Milton community walks - #cnoy16

It was phenomenal to stand in the Milton Sports Centre hall amidst the electrifying buzz as people queued up to register with the 10 registration desks for our 3rd Coldest Night of the Year. 

Well done Milton. You should be very proud of yourselves.

Milton Transitional Housing Event Directors, Lorna Turner & Margot Johnson celebrate exceeding our $40,000 #cnoy16 goal.

We had six local councillors, our local MP, sponsors, media, volunteers and those so young they could barely walk to those have walked wiles of Milton pavements in the lifetimes. Just extraordinary.

Indira Naidoo-Harris, Milton MP welcomes back walkers to theMilton Sports Centre and praising the incredible sense of community.

More than 50% of businesses and charities cease to exist within 3-years. Milton Transitional Housing meanwhile continues to expand in the roots in the community. It was fabulous to see the kids thoroughly enjoying themselves, aided by cake at Sobeys!

Empty Bowls sponsor Lynn Dickinson, Simply Creative, goes all out!

It was amazing to witness not just in the Milton Sports Centre but in the knowledge that the first walks set out at 3.45pm ET in Newfoundland and Labrador and that at 8.15pm ET those of Vancouver Island were just stepping out. An incredible 92 communities the breadth of Canada out there walking in balmy mild weather in support of those at risk of homelessness. At 6pm we were trending on Twitter!

It is important to remind ourselves why we were all out there walking the streets of Milton to raise both funds and awareness of those at risk of homelessness in our community and others across Canada.

Wendy Schau helps describe exactly why Milton Transitional Housing is important for those at risk of homelessness.

The Coldest Night of the Year scoreboard showed 83% towards its $4million target. The money is anticipated to keep rolling in, so the target remains achievable.

The national scorecard

We could not have run this event without the generosity of our sponsors and all the volunteers. Lorna Turner and Margot Johnson however do utterly deserve to be singled out and we are all inspired by their dedication, excellence and passion. Thank you ladies.

Thanks to all our incredible sponsors

There are lots of photos on the Milton Transitional Housing Facebook page. You can look back at out @MiltonTH1 tweets or search #cnoy16 to see activity across Canada.

Coldest Night of the Year - Special Charity Spotlight

Each Friday I run a Charity Spotlight feature on my business blog. It seemed highly appropriate to devote today's spotlight feature to Coldest Night of the Year. 

Read the special Charity Spotlight - Coldest Night of the Year here

Here is what Brian Carney, CEO of Blue Sea Philanthropy added to our recent discussion for our Charity Spotlight feature.

"Charities like MTH exemplify the type of charity we love working with though. Big community involvement. Fun, engaged leadership. A big vision for the future and from our stand point in CNOY, just really great people to work with on this national event. Donna, Lorna - the whole team has been a pleasure to work with. Milton will have a great walk this year again." 

The CNOY scoreboard is great to watch as it goes up every 15 minutes. There is still time to join a team, create a new team, donate and volunteer. Good luck everyone.

I am really excited to be walking tomorrow. Go The Flakes!!! I will be tweeting too using #cnoy16. Please follow and post too. I would love to be able to take part in each one of the 92 walks across Canada.

"MTH has brought back the light of inspiration to me"

This is the inspiration message from a Milton Mom, reported in the Milton Canadian Champion. The Mom attributes getting herself and son back on their feet to Milton Transitional Housing.

The story by Julie Slack, a reporter at the Milton Canadian Champion, is so incredibly uplifting to all those with the foresight and passion to establish Milton Transitional Housing. It makes all the hard work worthwhile and all those involved, those who have volunteered and supported in any way should feel very proud ...and perhaps a little tearful.

Read the Kathy's story here.

Thank you to Kathy, Julie, Donna for bringing us this moving piece and inspiring message.

The Canadian Champion story also presents facts about homelessness in Milton and encourages us to participate in the amazing Coldest Night of the Year walk on Saturday February 20th.

To register now go to https://coldestnightoftheyear.org/location/milton.

Medium article - Do we have too many homeless charities?

Can we have too many organisations in Canada supporting those at risk of homelessness?

Here is a link to my reflections form the last 7 years. Contentious. Maybe.

I talk about Milton Transitional Housing, Coldest Night, Empty Bowls and Homeless Hub.

"In these last 7 years my perspective is shifting. Have we ended up with so many homelessness groups because of a lack of ownership at a Federal, Provincial or Regional governmental level? I am coming round to the perspective that rather than replicate new charities across multiple communities, that we actually need to push towards a singular voice and collaborate in new ways."

Fashionista Flip today in Milton

Don't miss today's Milton Fashionista Flip (January 16) from 11am - 3pm at Italian Canadian Club of Milton – 104 Tremaine Road, Milton L9T 2W9

Explore the incredible selection and variety of stylish items that have been donated. $10 will get you into a fabulous boutique of gently-used and nearly-new fashion items – clothing, jewellery, handbags, scarves, etc. Any item in the room will cost you $2 – doesn’t matter if it’s a coach bag or a pair of flip flops.

Please use #MTHflip across social media to help us promote today's fabulous event. Tweet pictures to your friends #MTHflip @MiltonTH1. We will re-tweet what you share.

This is a fabulous way to enable Milton Transitional Housing to support those at risk of homelessness in our community. Thank you to all our amazing volunteers and supporters who have made this event possible.