Friendship is at the heart of everything the small staff at Helping Hands Street Mission in Hamilton does, and the organization’s executive director says that necessity is especially important during the holidays.

Alice Plug-Buist said Helen Norris started the mission 21 years ago because she was inspired by a woman who befriended her and helped her during a “very difficult” time. » of his life.

While Norris “started with a van full of supplies for people,” Plug-Buist said, the founder always knew that “it was more than just the things that really helped him get out of his situation difficult”, so relationships and being seen. , heard, valued and befriended were even more important to her.

Norris and her husband Tom then rented a storefront on Garden Street, where they opened a supply store that people could get for free. Free coffee was also provided, Plug-Buist said.

“Throughout this time, we’ve always asked ourselves, ‘How can we help meet people’s needs, while digging deeper and engaging people?’ “, Plug-Buist told CBC Hamilton.

“So that’s kind of where this whole friendship piece came from.”

Years later, the organization hired an outreach worker to help people with their daily needs, but Plug-Buist said it started to become a little too clinical and too much of a social service delivery rather than maintaining a friendship.

Plug-Buist said that over the past five years, Helping Hands Street Mission, which is a registered charity, has attempted to return to a more friendship-based space of support.

“We’re not trying to take the place of other social service providers in the area, but rather we’re trying to be that middle piece that gives someone a friend who walks alongside them to access all the other resources available in the city, so that they are not alone in their search for housing or bereavement support, medical support and those kinds of things.

“There are friends who will go with them when they don’t have another stable person in their life who can give them that kind of friendly support that many of us who have larger support circles do,” Plug said. -Buist.

Small staff helped by dozens of volunteers

As Helping Hands has refocused on its core mission, the outreach worker role morphed into a new position about three years ago, with a new title: friendship manager, said Plug Buist.

“The befriending manager is the front-line person. The person doesn’t do all of this befriending themselves, but they help all of our volunteers as well as community members learn to be those kinds of friends to the people,” she said. said.

“We have a small team of five people at Helping Hands as a team, but we have over 50 volunteers who we try to train and empower to be those kinds of friends to each of the people who come to Helping Hands. ”

Helping Hands operates a free store where people share their closets with friends, Plug-Buist said.

“Our program room, the idea is that it’s our living room and friends share their living room with each other – you invite people to share a cup of coffee with you, to play games with you” , she said.

“We’re just trying to be that friendship space, that community space where people can just be there for each other and walk alongside each other.”

Making sure no one misses anything during the holidays

Jessica Maxwell, interim director of the social psychology program at McMaster University, said friendships are important because everyone has “this basic need to belong,” to feel part of a community and to he connects with others.

“Everyone needs friendship,” Maxwell told CBC News.

But friendship plays an even more important role this time of year, because the holidays remind us to connect with others, she said.

“This is a time when many people feel sadly alone. So our close relationships, including our friendships, can be a really good way to help us feel less alone and feel better about everything,” she said. she declared.

“I think the holidays also bring a lot of reflection. It’s a time when people want to reach out to their loved ones…maybe we feel like 2024 has passed and we haven’t reached our goals. goals – that’s when we want to turn to other people, so friends can be a great way to reinforce that.”

Maxwell said the role of Helping Hands’ friendship manager is a “big step”, recognizing that our social needs are important.

Every December 25, Helping Hands opens up to people who may not have family or friends to be with on Christmas Day.

“From 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. we will be open for visits from our friends. We will sing together, we will give each other gifts, we will welcome Santa Claus on Christmas Day.” » said Plug-Buist.

“I think it’s a really good picture of what Christmas is really like for a lot of people, and what a lot of marginalized people, who don’t have a lot of family and friends, normally… end up by passing by at Christmas time.