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Tara Tschritter, left, and Amy Nuttall in the heart of Inn From the Cold. (Photo Gary Moore)
As the dark descends over Kelowna a light begins to shine from a building on 1571 Sutherland Ave. On the busy road, cars pass back and forth and life goes on as usual as people rush to their homes to spend their time with their families, but on the second floor of the aged building it is anything but normal.
We climb stairs that so many before have, although they go to survive another day from Kelowna’s cold streets.
Tara Tschritter, Volunteer and Shelter Coordinator of Inn From the Cold sits down at a modest cubicle which is her office. She is confident yet welcoming and friendly.
It’s very quiet in the spacious building except for soft keyboard strokes from Amy, an intake worker and coordinator assistant for the shelter. Not only are they co-workers they are friends also.
Tschritter is new to her job but you wouldn’t know it by how she rattles off facts about the Kelowna haven.
“Inn From the Cold is a non profit charity which started in 1999 as a grass roots movement out of churches for many years. These churches got together and basically saw the need for shelter in the coldest winter months. We just had a big gap and people weren’t accessing shelters until last year they acquired this shelter and hired staff,” Tschritter told Kelowna.com.
Inn From the Cold serves breakfast in the morning and dinner in the evening and shelter from the extremes throughout the night and open their doors Nov. 1 to March 31 every year.
“Our capacity is 35 but we try to keep it under 35 if we can, we are lucky because we work in close partnership with the Gospel Mission and Alexandra Gardner House and here in Kelowna we have a really good extreme weather protocol, so no one really has to sleep on the street,” Tschritter stated.
“If we get to capacity and all the other shelters are at capacity, the Friendship Center will start laying down mats and we have a good system of keeping track of that every night. At 9 p.m the intake workers all call the Gospel Mission and report their numbers so there is one central place that knows the numbers so we can refer to it. It works really well.”
Inn From the Cold take people in every night between 7 p.m and 8 p.m during those dark and frigid winter nights and the guests are served a meal and can watch a movie in a living room area of the shelter before lights are out around 10:30 p.m. The sleepy are woken up at 6 a.m., shower, have breakfast and are out the doors by 7 a.m. The weekend visitors get to sleep in an extra half hour on weekends.
Tschritter has worked various jobs in social services, has a community development background and has been a frontline with homelessness and believes in what the organization is doing for real change.
“I have worked with homeless and other marginalized people over my career and it’s something that I am very passionate about. I was very impressed with the overall mandate of the organization, it doesn’t have a lot of barriers that are put up for people coming here. It’s the philosophy in the way we treat people who come through that door. They are referred to as guests and not clients and it’s a pretty homey and comfortable atmosphere,” Tschritter said.
“There is another program through Inn from the Cold’s ‘home support advocacy program’ for people who are at risk of becoming homeless or who have been homeless in the past and are at risk of becoming homeless again. Once they obtain housing we can set them up with advocates, which are trained community volunteers and mentors that can be with them one on one throughout the week and just support them in their community connections, connecting them with resources. It’s a good bridge for them to keep them in their housing, it’s a pretty innovative program that I haven’t seen anywhere else before and works really well.”
Tschritter admits that there is no face to homelessness.
“We have people who are transitioning through town, young people with barriers who have had issues with their parents and with various systems and end up on the street for whatever reason for a short period of time, people who have been on the street for a long time and are really entrenched, people who are dealing with addictions and people who are dealing with mental health as well but also people who are brain injured who had housing and ended up losing it because of an accident, so there really is a wide variety of people who come through our door,” she said.
To volunteer, help or donate to Inn From the Cold:
Contact: Tara at 250-448-6403
www.innfromthecoldkelowna.org
info@innfromthecoldkelowna.org
agary@kelowna.com
250-575-4021
One Response to “Inn From the Cold and into the warmth”
Tags: homeless, inn from the cold, Kelowna, reporter gary moore, shelter, tara tschritter
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This really is a wonderful group and a terrific program!!! These ladies have gone out of their way to be kind and compassionate and have never, ever treated a person with any disrespect! They have been going about providing this service for many a year and it has been a life saver. I am truly thankful they are there for those faces we see the next morning and I know, first hand, that the people utilizing this program are deeply grateful for their presence.
Keep up the good work and from all of us to all of you, have a very wonderful Christmas!
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