HELPING HANDS INTERVIEW

New City Church is proud to partner with Helping Hands Street Mission, where New City’s Kevin deJonge serves as a board member. We spoke to him about his role with Helping Hands, what they do and how we can get involved with them as a church.

1. What’s your role with Helping Hands?

I volunteer as a Helping Hands board member. Our board is comprised of 5 members, with Alice Plug-Buist serving as the Executive Director. As a board, our mandate is to hold the mission and vision and ensure that Helping Hands is moving towards the priorities set forth in the strategic plan. Currently, we are working towards sustainability and beginning to dream of a long term future on Barton Street.

2. How did you get involved with Helping Hands? 

When I was a youth leader, we used to go to this event called Cross Culture. Youth groups would get together and worship through serving on a Saturday. One time we served at Helping Hands. When Alice became the Executive Director, she asked me to help lead the men’s Bible study. These Bible studies were wild! No question was left unasked about every passage and every moral idea. I enjoyed the setting where guys could come without a filter and ask anything.

When I worked at New City, I learned about the partnership New City has with Helping Hands. The partnership document says that “both organizations will endeavour to have a member of New City Church serve on the board of Helping Hands.” At that time we realized we didn’t have a member on the board. It got mentioned in the meeting (as a joke) that maybe I would be the member. Not long after, I reached out to Alice to tell her I would be the board member.

3. What is your favorite part about your role, and your greatest challenge?

My favorite part about the role is getting an insider look into the organization. We are a governance board. We don’t do the work of Helping Hands. Alice, the staff and the volunteers are the ones who do it. I love watching and seeing what God is doing and being a part of strategic thinking about the future and how we can continue the mission of “reaching out together, with love and respect, in Jesus’ name” to the people of Barton Street. We get the privilege of hearing the stories of transformation every time we meet as a board. There is always a story of how God is working and bringing people together and how much need there is for friendship.

4. What kind of work does Helping Hands do on a day-to-day basis?

This is a very important question. Helping Hands Street Mission is “reaching out together, with love and respect, in Jesus’ name.” An organization that had this as their mission could be doing anything, from handing out sandwiches or offering shoe polishing. It is not clear what Helping Hands does daily by looking at their mission. But when you drill down and see where they are situated on Barton Street and the community they serve, the programs begin to make sense.

Helping Hands offers a place Monday, Wednesday, Friday and various other times during the week for people to make friends and be friends, all with the goal of reaching out in Jesus’ name. Helping Hands has two main offerings. On one side they have a cafe and gathering space. Here, volunteers will give out free coffee and cookies and people hang out in the “living room” type atmosphere. On the other side, they have a free clothing store, where you can come in and take a few items of clothing with you. Volunteers will help you find your size and assist you as needed.

Helping Hands could do a lot more. The key is that they reach out with love and respect in Jesus’ name. They also focus on bible studies. On Sundays, we offer an Introduction to Worship time, where people are invited to come and see what church is about and have an opportunity to worship in a place that is comfortable for them. They have games nights and movie nights and much more. There is a real sense of community among the friends at Helping Hands. People want to spend time together, whether its over board games or a TV series. These are all things we need as humans. Humans were made to belong. We find this belonging in Christ, but we can show people what this looks like by offering them belonging in community.

5. What do you value most about the work of Helping Hands?

I am passionate about serving people who are in spiritual, financial, social and material poverty. I value that I can be a part of this, whether it is as a board member or a volunteer. I like that Helping Hands focuses on every aspect of poverty. Giving people friendship in Jesus’ name gives them dignity and belonging. Helping Hands recognizes that Jesus is the solution to poverty and is doing something about it.

The other thing I value is the community and belonging that exists at Helping Hands. This is something that I need as well. I need to be a part of a community like Helping Hands. Helping Hands is a natural outworking of what it looks like when people find their belonging in Christ. They share their lives with others! I am not above what Helping Hands is doing. We are all made in the image of God, we all need belonging, and we can all find it in Jesus.

6. How does our partnership with Helping Hands work?

In February 2020, an unfortunate time of human history, right before COVID, the New City leadership and the Helping Hands board came into an official partnership and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This MOU, in one sense, keeps both organizations accountable. If Helping Hands was to change their mission and vision, it would need to be looked over by the New City Church leadership.

New City has also committed to financially supporting Helping Hands. No set number has been allocated, but it speaks to how we believe this organization is worth giving to. We have a commitment to be giving to this organization. New City also committed to providing opportunities for members to serve with their time.

Another cool part about the partnership is that New City is committed to praying and offering pastoral staff for the staff of Helping Hands. New City has also committed to giving a voice to the work of Helping Hands. Helping Hands gets to give regular updates as part of the agreement.

7. Helping Hands hosted the Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY) for the first time in 2022. Tell us more about how that went and how can we get involved this year?

Alice worked really hard to have Helping Hands be a host of CNOY. CNOY is a fundraiser that happens every February. It is a family-friendly walk to raise money for charities who serve people who are experiencing hurt, hunger and homelessness. CNOY offers the website and infrastructure around the fundraiser and requires much less resources than running your own fundraiser.

Last year we raised over $30,000 and this year we have set our goal to double this. We are confident that we can reach this goal and I would encourage you to join the New City Team! The Helping Hands team that organizes this is very thoughtful about this walk. You get to see Barton Street, the beauty and the hurt. You get a taste for why Helping Hands exists and why they do what they do as well as the other service providers who are meeting other needs in the neighbourhood. It is an opportunity to learn and help raise support for Helping Hands. Being part of this helps sustain the mission and vision of Helping Hands.

8. Is there anything else you would like us to know about Helping Hands?

I would encourage people to check out Helping Hands. New City does a good job at being involved at Helping Hands, but I think lot’s of people who haven’t checked it out yet. Go on the website, watch a video, talk to me, Alice or Hobbe (who is involved with Helping Hands through Power to Change), subscribe to the newsletter, whatever it is, I would encourage you to take one step towards getting involved with Helping Hands.