Wednesday, June 26, 2013

The Flow of Abundance


          This short note is simply an apology to all my Brothers and Sisters for being away from my blog site for so long; and I hope you will be patient a little longer. My world has been opening up so rapidly over the past few weeks I am having trouble keeping up LOL. Just sorting through this explosion of opportunity with so many options has been a fulltime job. The more we open to the energetic flow the more abundance comes to us. God/ Universe/ Source/ Quantum can be very generous when we are willing to receive.  
          Two weeks ago I release the Report of Finding from Angels of the Road and last week it was a feature in the CanadianSocialResearch.net weekly newsletter thank you Gilles Sequin ;-). The paper has been well received with about 30% response (most academic papers get 3% response. This opens me up to write two books; a human services industry handbook, “OUT  REACHING: A Streetwise Guide to Social Work”. All the things I learned on the street that never made it into the textbooks. Then of course there is the autobiographical account of my experiences during the Angels of the Road journey.
          I decided to moved to a smaller town; found a perfect little apartment and made an appointment to go up island to view it. Then out of the blue (I had applied but thought I had been passed over again) I get a phone call from Our Place to interview for a residential support worker. These people do amazing work and I would be so fortunate to be a part of such a caring team of professionals. This position is so perfect for me because, it would leave time for other pursuits (writing, building my consulting practice and establishing the Spirit of the 8th Fire Centre) everybody send energy for me on this one. As if that isn’t enough don’t I find just the most darling little bachelor apartment 3 blocks from Our Place.  How great is that… I love this life.

           So my friends please indulge me for just a couple of more weeks… I’m sure things will get back to normal by then. Migwetch 


Have a joyous day.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

After the Apocalypse


Our hearts and prayers go out to everyone whose property and lives have been impacted by the Alberta flooding this week… especially those who lost loved ones in the High River flood. A man was on Facebook yesterday seeking word on his father an elderly man in a wheelchair who had refuse to evacuate his home. This presents me with something of a quandary; I support the individual’s right of self determinations up to and including the right to assisted suicide. I suppose that reasonably would include making stupid decisions which put your life at risk (all plummeting sports come to mind). Here comes the, “but” an evacuation is much easier to do then a rescue operation which could actually jeopardize the lives of rescue workers and would unnecessarily divert resources. Also the person refusing evacuation is not acting from a full understanding of the risks, in as much as the Flood of the Century could only be experienced twice by someone well over 100. Guess I’m just saying at times like this it should be illegal to refuse evacuation and anyone who won’t go willingly should be charged with interference and removed by force. Sorry ACLU but they can come home and die on their own time.
The devastation in Calgary effected the city’s richest and the city’s poorest without prejudice.  With everything in downtown Calgary hit by the flood 3000 or more homeless people have been displaced from shelters. Calgary had a unique situation which evolve from the rapid boom and bust economic cycles. The shelter providers operate independently and in competition with each other; a friend from the CHF (Calgary Homeless Foundation) referred to them as empire builders. Perhaps with all the rebuilding which needs to be done we will also see some rethinking on the part of the 3 major providers of shelter services. Perhaps it is time for a merging of the kingdoms. Working in collaboration could provide a much better and more productive system for all the stakeholders in Calgary’s shelter industry.
Working with the downtown homeless for so many years leaves one the impression that Calgarians hated the homeless. This is clearly a misperception as witnessed by my friends who were moved to the DI’s as yet unfinished location on motel row. It seemed like everyone one with means to travel, rushed over to aid our homeless friends; bring food, water, blankets, clothes and man power. Hundreds maybe even thousands of people caring and sharing in this time of crisis.
Bless you all and thank you.
 
 

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Get your very own copy of the report of findings for Angels of the Road.

Good morning,

Special thx to Gilles Sequin, you can link onto the summary of my report through here http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/summary.pdf

As you all know, few years ago I set out to observe the Canadian shelter system from the perspective of our clients. I am not going to say the system was failing, but there was missing information. Information that may make our job easier…as I see it our job is to help people move forward with their lives and get out of the shelters. The project was 16 months long, covered all regions of Canada except the far north and Quebec. I lived every minute of every day as a homeless person; ate what they ate, slept where they slept, spent my days with them hanging out and being a part of their world.  Now I share what I have learned with you.
There are two PDF documents which I will be happy to email to you. Just send your request to blcameron51@gmail.com. One is a 28 page report of my findings, a quasi academic style paper with observations, conclusions and recommendations for 8 different parameters of the shelter experience. The other is a 3 page summary of those findings.
Please feel free to forward this information when you get it to anyone in the human services field who has an interest in homelessness or contact with marginalized populations; or anyone studying or teaching in human services. Perhaps one day I will write about the actual experience of being “out there” but, this report is more important to the industry and my client friends; then is regaling the world with personal anecdotes. Thank you for your interest and your help in sharing this knowledge with the world.
Have a joyous day
Bonny