October 2008

SALVATION ARMY envoy Gary Johnson’s excitement is infectious as he gives a status report on the Gateway of Hope in Langley: “The concrete footings will be poured next week!”

The $14.2 million, 32,000 sq ft holistic care facility is on track to open in September 2009, with 85 percent of its funding coming from the three levels of government.

The facility will certainly be impressive. Besides housing the Army’s typical Community & Family Services Centre and congregational services, it will be Langley’s first dedicated homeless shelter, with 30 beds.

It will also feature a 25-bed transitional living section for anyone requiring a few months of support to reorganize their lives – a godsend, for instance, to the senior who loses her apartment because she cannot keep up with rent.

A large commercial kitchen will provide 90 meals a day to shelter users, and an additional 150 low cost meals per day for others – such as single parent families and students from nearby Kwantlen University.

But  you need listen to Johnson only for a minute to realize that the pride in his voice clearly has more to do with the process that is yielding the Gateway.

“Right from the start, this was not sold as an Army project but rather as a project for and by the entire community.”

He adds: “You can see this best in how our programs are structured.” For instance, Langley Memorial Hospital has agreed to encourage doctors and nurses to volunteer to serve in the onsite medical room – a­nd will staff it with volunteer doctors and nurses.

Trinity Western University will send its nursing students here for their practicums. The graduate faculties of therapy and counselling at Trinity Western University and ACTS Seminaries, for their part, are similarly assuming responsibility for a suite of rooms just like those found in other professional buildings.

The Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce and the four Rotary Clubs recognize the value of preparing people for the workforce.

Therefore anyone from the Langleys will be able to participate in the community meal program as a chef or server in training, or they can choose instruction in building maintenance and janitorial services.

In fact, the business sector has been instrumental from the beginning. Even before any government came on board, several businesses began underwriting an annual charity golf tournament for the Gateway. Then the Rotary Clubs of Langley provided the venue and manpower for the project’s committee, which allowed Johnson and Mayor Peter Fassbender to bring many other groups to the table.

Stewart McIvor, president of Langley Central Rotary Club and member of South Langley Mennonite Brethren Church, ventures that “without the corporate sector and local Rotary Clubs, the Gateway of Hope Project would not have happened – or at least would have happened very differently.”

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 Rotary, he adds, is a global network of community volunteers, comprising 31,000 clubs and 1.2 million members. A key benefit of Rotary’s participation, he notes, is that “we show that the community’s heart is behind this project.”

Bill Strain, owner of Villa Electric, serves on several of the Gateway’s subcommittees and has helped his church, Brookswood Baptist, participate for years in the regional Extreme Weather Shelter program. Strain figures that the adage “to whom much is given, much is required” applies to the corporate sector on projects like the Gateway.

 “Businesses are uniquely positioned to provide funds and in-kind contributions, even to leverage tax write offs – as much for ongoing program costs as for initial capital. And we can hire graduates of the Gateway’s training programs.”

He underscores that the project will not be simply a depot for relief distribution. Holistic care requires expertise from all sectors, and Strain gives kudos again to Mayor Fassbender for keeping disparate groups pulling in the same direction to get much more accomplished.

Fassbender says the Gateway process has been particularly valuable because “it has broken down barriers that are often artificial between businesses and social service providers.”

By identifying issues and realistic solutions through dialogue, each sector has been charged with a different job in moving the collective ship forward. The City of Langley is contributing in excess of $2.4 million toward the project.

Fassbender and Johnson both point out that the Christian community has long played an essential role in responding to homelessness and poverty in the City and District of Langley. Johnson says support for the project from local churches throughout the process has been “nothing short of phenomenal.”

Congregations small and large, from every point on the theological and denominational spectrum, have responded with commitments of money and volunteers. Johnson attributes the outpouring in part to the fact that “people of all ages are searching for practical ways to express the love of Christ. They want to be hands-on.”

The community’s efforts on the Gateway have caught attention in high places. At a gala put on by the four Rotary Clubs (which raised $210,000), minister of housing Rich Coleman announced a $1 million addition to the province’s prior commitment to the project.

Reportedly with tears in his eyes, Coleman said he hoped the Gateway would be emulated throughout B.C. as a model for how a community can come together to address homelessness.

Contact: www.shalomseekers.com/housingconference.html

October 2008