GIVE the GIFT OF HOPE this holiday season

If you haven't already done so, please consider making a donation to Milton Transitional Housing and GIVE THE GIFT OF HOPE this holiday season. Your gift will help put a roof over the heads of people in our community who are in housing crisis and help them make a successful return to housing independence.

MAKE A DONATION AND GIFT IT TO SOMEONE on your holiday list. For every $10 you donate you can request a "gift card" to present to friends, teachers, co-workers. Tax receipts are provided. Click here and GIVE NOW!

REQUESTING GIFT CARDS: Hope 4 Holidays gift cards are available on request and your donation will be eligible for a gift card for every $10 you donate. Email Donna at office@miltontransitionalhousing.ca and ask her to send you out some gift cards that you can then present to people on your gift list. This is a perfect Christmas gift for your children's teachers, your hairdresser, or your co-workers.

DINING OUT COUPON BOOKS are also still available to purchase at $25/each. The booklet offers more than 30 coupons and specials for local restaurants that are good until June 2015. There is still lots of time to make use of this wonderful opportunity and the Dining Out coupon books make wonderful stocking stuffers! They can be purchased from the MTH office or online using your credit or debit card at www.miltontransitionalhousing.ca. Please call Donna at 289-971-0060.

World Paddle Awards Media Ambassador 2014 nominee

For those of you who have followed this blog from the start, you know I have a passion for writing. I am truly honoured to have been nominated for the World Paddle Awards as Media Ambassador 2014. You can read more and I would be even more delighted if you would vote for me. http://www.worldpaddleawards.com/nominees/2014-john-gregory-canada

AGM Tuesday November 25th

Milton Transitional Housing ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING on Tuesday, November 25 at 7:00 p.m.
Please join us for our Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, September 25 at Hugh Foster Hall, 141 King St., just south of Milton Town Hall. Learn more about our work, help us celebrate our successes and honour our outstanding volunteers - find out who has been named as this year's "Outstanding MTH Volunteer"!
Everyone is welcome and we look forward to seeing you there!

Client graduation

This is a major milestone for the community of Milton not least so for the first client aided by Milton Transitional Housing over the last 2 years. The first client to move into MTH first ever transitional housing unit has now graduated from the program with her dignity and independence.

It is the true fruition of our vision for those of us who started this up and all those among the community who have volunteered, supported and sponsored. Recruiting clients in to available housing units is not the goal of the organisation. The goal is to help those assisted by the program to be able to sustain themselves with less direct support.

Congratulations and a toast all round. Raise your glasses!!!!!

All that said, Milton Transitional Housing is growing and looking to acquire 2 more housing units so build upon the three clients and units already within the community.

Kingsley Gregory

Many of you will have met my Dad and be sad to hear he passed away at the weekend. Here is a link to his obituary and the alumni website of the school at which he taught, which have also posted a tribute.

Those that heard him read or sing will not forget it. He will be very sadly missed by a family of which he was immensely proud. I am delighted that one of the charities for any donations is the Croydon Churches Floating Shelter. It was my Dad's example that plays a part in what has become Milton Transitional Housing.

BP Portrait Award 2014 winner - homeless man

Thomas Ganter's depiction of Karel a homeless Man with a Plaid Blanket has won the BP Portrait Award for 2014. The oil on canvas painting is displayed together with the Judges comments at the National Portrait Gallery in London www.npg.org.uk

It is great to see the image of a homeless man win such a prestigious award. It further brings homelessness into the public spotlight. I was lucky enough to view these and the other shortlisted entries on display at the National Portrait Gallery.

The postcard image is copyright to the artist Thomas Ganter. Thomas was born in 1974, he lives in Weisbaden Germany, where Karel lives on the street's in his neighbourhood.

MTH Lottery Ticket draw - Happy Canada Day

Milton Transitional Housing is running a cash prize lottery. There are only 2,000 tickets available with 3 cash prizes ranging from $100 to $500. The Lottery Licence number is M692663. The tickets are from $2.00 each. The prize draw takes place on Monday September 8th 2014 at 2pm at the Milton Centre for the Arts. Visit www.miltontransitionalhousing.ca for me details.

Contact a member of Milton Transitional Housing to obtain for tickets which will support fundraising. MTH is a community-based registered Canadian charity providing bridge accommodation, support and counselling to those in Milton who are experiencing housing crisis as they work towards securing a stable home.

Thanks to Sharon Barkley for donating the printing of the raffle tickets

Milton Transitional Housing latest tenant of Habitat for Humanity

It is a wonderful new chapter for both Habitat for Humanity Halton and Milton Transitional Housing as they partner together with a shared base in Milton.

Wednesday the Milton Transitional Housing Board and volunteers were invited to a Team Gathering at the Habitat for Humanity Restore location at 25 Brown Street in Milton. This is the site of the Old Post office opposite the Milton Town Hall. Milton Transitional Housing has two offices and a Boardroom within the Milton Restore.

Mirela Vukosa Giannidis, Director of People and Community Engagement at Habitat for Humanity in Halton desribed it as "a wonderful beginning to an exciting journey". She reminded us that Milton has the lowest opportunity for affordable rentals in Ontario. She added that they are "thrilled to be partnering and working together with Milton Transitional Housing". Habitat for Humanity started back in 1999 and have 3 home ownership properties already this year alone. They now have 20 low income hard working families through home ownership with a longer term goal of 75.

Donna Danielli, Executive Director for Milton Transitional Housing updated the group on how MTH is evolving and meeting the needs of its three clients. The volunteer ambassador training sessions were warmly greeted as a tremendous to raise awareness. Many are surprised by the level of need in Milton.

Come and visit the Milton Restore location to see for yourself.

Come and see us at Heritage Park Saturday June 14th

Milton Transitional Housing will be at the Teddy Bear picnic in Heritage Park tomorrow 10am - 3pm(Saturday June 14th. Further information including a map is available here

Come and see how we are helping those at risk of homelessness in our community

The Current CBC Radio 1

A day prior to residents of Ontario going to the polls for the Provincial election, today's The Current on CBC Radio 1 featured interviews regarding homelessness. You can listen to the podcast on the CBC link here

It is very consistent with our own thinking about having the necessary support network in place and not just driving those at risk of homelessness from sight.

Wonderful Empty Bowls video

I highly recommend you watch this fabulous video made at the March 30th 4th annual Empty Bowls event. It provides a good representation of the amazing community support that continues to build and hear from the Board members and local politicians on the local need.

Annual 4th Empty Bowls video

Please share this video through your won Facebook and Twitter accounts. Thank you Giles vanderHolt for your production of this video.

It even features me and the bowl we chose with the ladybugs. Thank you to B.W. for painting it so beautifully.

Fabulous turnout for 4th Empty Bowls

There was a fabulous turnout for today's Empty Bowls event run by Milton Transitional Housing (MTH) in the MinMaxx Hall of Milton Centre for the Arts. The bowls were stunning and the soups delicious.

New MTH Executive Director, Donna Danielli, expressed her gratitude to the volunteers, sponsor but mostly to the those of the members of the community who came out to support this important fourth Empty Bowls annual event. Important, because with the original Ontario Trillium Foundation funding having come to an end the organisation is ever more reliant of the Empty Bowls or other fundraising events like Coldest Night of the Year to enable MTH to meet its commitment to clients in need and achieve its objectives.

We were pleased to see Ted Chudleigh, Indira Naidoo-Harris and other local politicians and councilors again supporting this event helping our own community. There were several members of the media present, including the Milton Villager and Milton Champion so look out for coverage over the coming weeks.

It was announced that last month's Coldest Night of the Year event raised $43,000 which will result in income to MTH of around $33,000. I will share the outcome of this Empty Bowls event as soon as possible. The MTH Board will soon be preparing their next grant submission to help MTH continue to grow. The organisation has expanded its horizons with the intent to 3 more units through 2014 and gradually increase to 13 units in the next 5 years. This is amazing given where we were in 2008.

For those of us who have been there from the start and the 1st Empty Bowls is a truly thrilling to see how the event has grown and the organisation prospered to become and establish part of the Milton community landscape. The first client is graduating from the prgram meaning we will soon be able to help a new client or family.

There are so many sponsors and volunteers to thank as well as the cooperation of the Milton Centre for the Arts staff. The Event Sponsor was Prosperity One, Empty Bowls Host Sponsor and our Platinum Sponsor is MinMaxx. Simply Creative again donated the bowls which had been hand decorated by volunteers. We thank our Silver sponsor U-Need Storage, Ads at Work Media Sponsor and all the other local businesses who donated soup or food. See the Milton Transitional Housing website or Facebook page.

Empty Bowls today

Come down to the MinMaxx Hall at the Milton Centre for the Arts, 110 Main Street for today's Milton Transitional Housing Empty Bowls fundraiser. See you there. Lunch starts at 11.30 until 2pm. Take home a beautiful hand-painted bowl and help those at risk of homelessness in our community.

I encourage you to post a link to your Facebook or Twitter account.

Come fill your Empty Bowl tomorrow in Milton

Join me for lunch tomorrow at Milton Centre for the Arts. It will be served in your own beautiful hand decorated bowl. There are lots of fabulous soups from which to choose.The proceeds from this charity fundraising activity will go to support those at risk of homelessness through Milton Transitional Housing (MTH)

There are some great soup recipes provided on the MTH Facebook page here.

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Food will be served from 11.30am. Tickets are still available. Click here for information or tickets.

Sunday lunch in Milton - March 30th

As a strong supporter of Milton Transitional Housing the annual EMPTY BOWLS Soup Lunch is on Sunday, March 30. The lunch will be held in MinMaxx Hall in the Milton Centre for the Arts (1010 Main St.) from 11:30am until 2:00pm, so it's a perfect solution for where to go for Sunday lunch.

We hope that you will be interested in coming out to sample the gourmet soups prepared and donated by local restaurants and caterers. Tickets are $50 each (children 12-and-under are free with an ticketed adult) and include all the soup you can eat and you also get to keep the hand-painted ceramic bowl that you choose for your lunch. A charitable receipt for $25 will be mailed to you next February if you fill out the back of your ticket.

If you would like to buy tickets go to our MTH website and buy your ticket online using your debit or credit card. Click here

I'm looking forward to seeing you at EMPTY BOWLS on March 30. It's always a good time and we get a nice chance to see everyone and chat about what's going on in and around Milton as we enjoy our lunch.

Fabulous 1st Coldest Night of the Year walk

This wonderful video below speaks to the tremendous turn-out, awareness and support for those at risk of homelessness in Milton and similar communities across Canada.

Click here for the YouTube link to Milton Villager Milton's "Coldest Night of the Year".

This first Coldest Night of The Year walk event for Milton transitional Housing has raised in the region of $40,000. My understanding is that Milton Transitional Housing retain 70% of the first $25,000 raised and more for funds raised beyond $25,000.

You can access the great photo album on the Milton Transitional Housing Facebook page by clicking here

Don't forget MTH next fundraising event which is the 4th annual Annual Empty Bowls on Sunday March 30th. More details can be found on the MTH website, where you can make donations. We encourage the residents of Milton to turn out and support.

Coldest Night of the Year event

Milton Transitional Housing next fundraising is part of the Coldest Night of the Year initiative.

You can register to support this initiative on February 22nd through the above link or Milton Transitional Housing website or Facebook pages.

You can watch a 2 minute video on YouTube to learn more about the Coldest Night of the Year vision

Happy New Year Message

MTH Chair Arnold Huffman (above) has shared a New Year message with volunteers and supporters. In it he describes the MTH Board committment to our mission of providing support for our participants as they move “From Hope to Home”. He says "We are very grateful for your invaluable and vital commitment to MTH and its work."

The next MTH Team gathering on January 20, 7:00 pm at Southside Church will focus on the next big MTH fundraiser, Coldest Night of the Year Walk on February 22, led by Margot Johnson, Event Director, with her organizing team: Wendy Schau, Audrey Peddie, John Ghent, Freda Flook, Bob Walker and Lorna Turner.