EDMONTON — Downtown Edmonton sparkles at this time of year.

Holiday lights twinkle in Winston Churchill Square, while across the street the shops in Edmonton Centre entice with their festive window displays. People bustle along in the winter chill, hurrying home with bags of gifts to put beneath the tree.

Blocks away, in the inner city, there’s activity of a different kind. People on those sidewalks carry bags, too, but they’re not full of treasures from a night of shopping. Rather, they hold the worldly possessions of someone whose home is the street.

It’s 8 p.m. and this crowd is waiting for the Hope Mission’s overnight shelter to open its doors. Every evening they line up for a chance to sleep in the Mission’s cavernous hall, located at 9908 106th Ave. Row upon row, they bed down on mats laid out on the hard tile floor.

Early the next morning, they’re back on the street. The mats are disinfected and stacked against the walls and the Hope Mission begins breakfast preparations, serving up to 250 people cereal, fresh fruit and toast in the area where nearly 200 slept the night before.

Year-round, the routine remains the same: The not-for-profit Christian social care agency provides beds and three meals a day to the hurting, hungry and homeless. Every day, more than 800 people turn to the organization for basic and emergency care.

The Mission’s primary concern is the safety and well-being of those in need, says development director Stephen Berg.

During the holiday season, though, staff and volunteers face another challenge: helping those who come through their doors deal with the sadness Christmas can trigger.

“Christmas can be an excruciatingly lonely time for people on the street,” says Berg. “It’s a reminder of their state, their place.

“So even beyond the immediate physical needs during the wintertime, is the heightened emotional needs, the connections that people need and the care that needs to be shown.”

Sometimes having someone listen is all they need.

“We’re here,” says Berg. “We have people, we have staff who will sit and talk. We have chaplains and counsellors .... There’s people who will talk to them at any time of the day and night.”

The Hope Mission has grown immensely since Rev. Harold Edwardson set up a small soup kitchen in 1929 to feed people laid low by the Great Depression.

Now along with food and shelter, the Mission provides a whole range of services from counselling and addiction treatment to programs for disadvantaged kids.

Counselors, chaplains and volunteers visit people on the street, in prisons and in hospitals. The Hope Bargain Shoppe provides clients with clothing, blankets and workwear.

“The Hope Mission is a Gospel mission and so the good news, the Gospel, is caring for people,” says Berg. “The Gospel, essentially, is just another word for love and so love is what we try to offer along with the food and along with the clothes.”

The agency’s transitional housing helps people get off the street and into their own place.

“We charge far below market rent so that they’re able to improve themselves, improve their education, so they can get better jobs so that they can move out into the community,” Berg says.

A ministry van roams inner-city streets, distributing bagged lunches, hot chocolate, blankets, tuques and gloves.

“The van is for people who are in crisis in the street,” says Berg. “Perhaps they’ve fallen asleep in the wintertime, and they pick people up and they bring them to shelters or they’ll find appropriate places for them.”

Despite a staff of more than 200 and a core of faithful volunteers, the task of helping society’s neediest is daunting. The Mission doesn’t try to do it alone.

“Someone who is vulnerable, a woman or a youth who needs something that we can’t give them, we’re going to refer them to other agencies,” says Berg.

“We certainly try to work with all the agencies, all the other missions.”

One is Operation Friendship at 9526 106th Ave. The non-profit society provides community-based preventive social services to seniors in the inner city.

The Marian Centre Edmonton, located at 10528 98th Street, is known for its service to the poor. Staff and volunteers at the Roman Catholic-based organization serve up hot meals to the needy in the centre’s dining room five days a week and distribute sandwiches at other times.

Boyle Street Community Services offers housing programs, adult, youth and family outreach and group homes for youth aged two to 18. The organization, at 10116 105th Ave., has a drop-in centre. Its winter van and river valley and city park outreach programs provide food, warm clothing and first aid.

For Berg, it doesn’t matter which agency provides the care as long as those in need get it.

“We work with the same guests,” he says.

During the dark winter months, the Mission aims at providing some light to those who need it most.

“When it gets cold out, we get an increase of people coming in, seeking shelter and seeking warmth, so it will get busier,” says Berg.

“People are more vulnerable in the cold. So close proximity to shelters, to missions like this is pretty important.”

To find out more about the work of the Hope Mission visit the website at hopemission.com

Donations make Christmas a brighter time

Volunteers and donations make Christmas a brighter time for people seeking help from the Hope Mission.

“Christmas is kind of like our harvest time because people open up a bit more,” says Stephen Berg, the agency’s development director.

“Around this time of year, perhaps, minds turn a bit more to giving and the reason why we want to give and have compassion.”

Everyone from individuals and church groups to business groups and schools offer assistance over the Christmas season.

“Food is kind of the backbone, the heart of the Mission,” says Berg. “Most of the volunteers work with us in the kitchen, in setting up our dining area and taking down and clean up, in food preparation, just in greeting and meeting and serving.”

Those needs don’t stop when the holidays are over.

“We are actually full with volunteers ... right through December,” says Berg.

“But after that it falls off. If you want to volunteer, January, February, those leaner months, and even the summer months, are a good time to plug in.”

Hope Mission may have enough helpers to see it through the new year, but donations of any kind are always welcome.

“There’s frozen turkeys over Thanksgiving and Christmas, lots of those are donated,” Berg says. “We’re looking for funds that would carry us through and keep our programs running.”

The Mission’s needs are great. Last year, it provided 181,155 emergency shelter bed nights; its food services served 394,278 hot meals and distributed 83,405 bag lunches. Its addiction recovery program had 80 graduates and 730 inner-city kids went to the Mission’s summer camp.

The agency has a Christmas gift catalog on line. Check out the website at www.hopemission.giving-hope.org

Some of its ongoing needs are for warm workclothes for men, clean clothes for men, women and children, gloves, hats, socks, underwear and hygiene items, backpacks, travel mugs, books, family-friendly magazines, CDs, DVDs, puzzles, games and toys.