New community liaison to manage partnerships

At the beginning of January 2012, NeighbourLink hired Cydney Wallace to organize and manage all of our partner agency relationships as our new Community Liaison. Here is an update from her:

NeighbourLink's new Community Liaison, Cydney Wallace

“There are many new and exciting things happening with our partnership agencies at NeighbourLink. The month of January 2012 brought a brand new agency partnership with the Aboriginal Friendship Centre of Calgary (AFCC). The AFCC now joins NeighbourLink’s other partnership agencies, Brenda’s House and The Mustard Seed, as one of three organizations whose clients are receiving furniture, household and baby items from NeighbourLink. All three of these partnership agencies specialize in re-housing singles and families as they are transitioning out of homelessness in Calgary. As these individuals move out of homeless shelters, NeighbourLink comes alongside them and provides beds for them to sleep in, dishes for them to eat on, along

with many other essential items. The partnerships that NeighbourLink has established have helped hundreds of Calgarians. In the year 2011, NeighbourLink assisted in helping to fully furnish 90% of the overall move-outs from the Brenda’s House shelter, helping 103 families consisting of 334 individuals. Since The Mustard Seed partnership was established in July of 2011, NeighbourLink has assisted in furnishing the homes of over 40 individuals as they have been re-housed. The months ahead look very exciting and busy for us and our partners. The Mustard Seed is set to open up a new apartment building for their clients in the near future and NeighbourLink will be furnishing a majority of the entire building. Brenda’s House maintains a steady flow of approximately ten move-outs per month and our new partnership with AFCC guarantees that we will be furnishing the homes of fifty individuals over the following months.”