I'm here representing the experiences of Soldiers Helping Soldiers as it relates to this phenomenon, not to speak entirely on behalf of all the experiences of those in it. For those who have not heard of or met Soldiers Helping Soldiers before, here is a very brief who we are and what we do. We are an organization of volunteers that aids in recognizing and connecting with veterans on the street. We identify them. We connect with them. I loved Cheryl's description of how that cultural and military reconnection is so important to so many. We connect with them on a personal level and then facilitate their connection and interconnectedness with those who can help them. It's very much that “walking beside” mission as opposed to “delivering the service” mission, and allowing those who are experts at delivering the services to be accessible to them so they can get the services they require. Fundamentally that's who we are and what we seek to do.
It's all volunteer work, including by serving members of the Canadian Forces who have permission to work with us as volunteers in uniform, helping to bring the uniform into that ecosystem. Veterans as well as citizens at large work within that diverse ecosystem that Phil and Cheryl described.
We have six years of experience in Ottawa. This year we will be expanding into Montreal and Vancouver, once we establish the conditions for an all-volunteer organization to find all the volunteers it needs.
We incorporated as a not-for-profit in late 2017. We are looking forward to working with other partners in this space.
What I'd like to offer, really, is just five observations, if you will, about the nature of homelessness and the dynamics that are the most useful and relevant to apply to finding and connecting with veterans and facilitating the connection of veterans to those who can help them.
The first one is that the numbers, the diversity and the geographies of homeless veterans are way larger and in way more places than we would have imagined. When I first heard the words “homeless veteran” six or eight years ago, I said, “There can't be that many.” I had to be educated as to how many more there were than I ever would have imagined, and how many more different places they are in than I would have imagined, and how different they are from their peers, if I can use that language, others who live through homelessness. Gender, age, diversity, geography—we need to continue to unpack those, and the work that Cheryl and others are doing to do that is incredible.
Second is that vets don't necessarily see themselves as veterans. The word itself can unintentionally limit someone's ability to self-identify and/or accept the help that may be due to them. The question or the language, if you will, that resonates with finding and connecting with them is less the language of the institution and bureaucracy, the “Are you a veteran?” than it is “Did you wear a uniform? Have you served?” The mental model within which we relate to each other is an important part of that as well.
Third, it takes a village. When prevention fails, the finding, connecting and recovery are not one thing; they're many things. It's not a person; it's many persons. It's not a relationship; it's many. It really is a potpourri. You can just imagine, if you walk through downtown Ottawa or your own hometowns and see all the folks involved in finding, serving the homeless, and trying to help them recover, that they are incredibly diverse. It does take that entire village, including all the functions they provide to help someone recover. Within that, case management is a significant challenge. I don't mean the case management of a person as it relates to a service provider. It's a question of how you design the journey for that individual through all those different service providers and walk with them on that journey. It does take a village.
The last point, if I may, is that it's a whole-of-community effort. It's creating platforms, and as Phil described, getting the community of those who care and those who are doing together to get to know each other better and to collaborate more naturally as opposed to compelling that collaboration. Inviting the collaboration and creating the opportunities for that collaboration is very powerful. I think you may have heard, if they haven't spoken to you already, of an initiative called the Respect Forum, which is actually in operation now. It is seeking to do that by bringing together at the community level all those who are engaged with veterans in distress—for mental health issues, homelessness and the like. Bringing community together is very much encouraged.
To conclude, a difference can be made and is being made, and clearly more can be made. It's gratifying for me to be involved. I see how gratifying it is for anyone who's involved at the street level and working with the individual veterans and their partners. It makes a difference not just in the veteran's life, but also in our own.
Thank you.