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A single mother of six children joins a group devoted to improving the lives of Edmonton's poor.
Date: 1969

It was the fall of 1969 and I was on welfare, a single mother with six children. My social worker informed me that people were getting together at the university and he thought I should attend. In fact, he went so far as to say he would take me, so I felt I had no choice but to agree to go, so off we went.

A young woman had gathered the group, feeling that it was time we banded together, helping each other and informing the government how better to meet the needs of people on social assistance. That was the night that the Humans on Welfare (H.O.W.) got its start. Even though there were only seven women and one man present, we decided right then and there to become a non-profit society. Fortunately, the gentleman was an excellent organizer and we soon had our objectives and goals. A spark had been kindled. We spent many hours planning. We approached funding agencies and were encouraged by their financial support. We were on our way to helping Edmonton's poor.

Our first office was the old Oxford Building on Jasper Avenue. We soon outgrew that and found larger space at the Mercantile Building but didn't last long there. It seemed the other occupants were concerned about our clientele coming and going from their building. We even thought about renting a neighborhood house, but again, the reaction was, there is a need, but please, not in our neighborhood.
Each time we got this reaction, the group knew we were on the right track, educating the public about the invisible poor among them. If you met any one of us on the street, you couldn't pick us out. We had the same aspirations for our lives and our families.

We finally found the perfect location. It was four buildings east of the W.W. Arcade. We had the second floor with the option of renting the third floor if we needed to expand. And expand we did. Our clothing and food depots soon spread out over the entire space.

H.O.W. became a focal point for social action on behalf of the poor. A lot of our clientele lived in the area and were within walking distance. People from all walks of life came to volunteer. We turned no one away. One day I looked out the window onto our back alley and saw a number of elderly Chinese women helping one woman into the garbage bin. She was handing food out to the others. I immediately got in touch with a young boy who spoke their language and had him tell the women they were welcome to come in the front door and take whatever they needed. We charged only 25c per visit and people could take as much as they needed. The fee was a way to pay gas to keep one of our volunteer's trucks running so he could do the pickups.

H.O.W. was such an interesting place to work. It gave us volunteers a sense of self-worth, getting out meeting people of all cultures, spreading the word of what we were about and how we could change lives for the better. We organized a march on the legislature to inform the government about the degrading nature of the voucher system instead of checks. When you took a voucher to the store, everyone knew you were on welfare. Immediately people around you at the checkout would be looking to see what was in your cart. Heaven forbid if you had pop or chips or a fancy cut of meat. Then when you flagged down a taxi, you were really living high on the hog. No one stopped to think that maybe you lived blocks away and had no car. How else could you get your groceries home? Even the members of parliament (MLA's) were shocked to think that vouchers were still being used. We, as a group, knew that some people needed vouchers, but not everyone.

H.O.W. was not a militant organization but would take a stand when we felt that an injustice was being done. As our membership grew from the original eight to well over 1000, volunteers were often asked to go out and talk to schools, churches and unions, informing the public about our goals and ourselves.

In the early 1970's Local Initiative Funding was available. We received a grant and hired three university students to do a survey called, Human Resources and Their Potential. One concern we identified was that people with disabilities who couldn't work should be given a pension rather than welfare. We again went to the government. This also was taken seriously and today disabled people come under a different program.

H.O.W. was chosen as an organization visited three years in a row, 1973 - 1975, by a number of women from Japan who wanted ideas on how to help the poorer people of their country. H.O.W. was not just a place to come to get food and clothes. It was a place where everyone was made welcome. The coffee pot was always on.

One year the transit system went on strike. Talk about devoted volunteers. Half a dozen of us just decided to stay from Monday to Friday and keep the offices open. We felt like we were on a business trip, albeit, a bare bones trip. We slept on whatever furniture we had in the building and used the kitchen to cook our meals. It was a great way to get to know each other. A couple of weeks after the strike, two handsome plainclothes policemen came to call, saying they had heard that people were sleeping in the building. We said yes, there had been, but not anymore - only while the strike had been on. We hadn't realized it was against the law or maybe we wouldn't have been so bold.

Another accomplishment was a pamphlet informing people how to apply for welfare and allowable benefits. We received monies from the Clifford E. Lee Foundation for this project. The pamphlet went out all over Alberta and to other provinces where people wanted to do something similar

I could go on about all the positive changes H.O.W. was involved in but the most important was, it gave so many people the courage to take that step to say," I have something to offer". Some of our members went back to school and on to better things. Others did volunteer work thus gaining a sense of contributing to the community. Members came from all walks of life and cultures.

H.O.W. has moved again, to a building of it's own, at 97th Street and 105th Avenue. It is still in the inner city serving the needs of Edmonton's poor. After thirty years it is one of the only grassroots organizations still around from that era, but there is a down side to that. Poverty is still as real now as it was in the 70's, maybe even worse. We still have a long way to go.