Help Give Edmonton That Warm Feeling

The Cause

Many people refer to Edmonton as a ‘winter city’. For most residents of the Capital Region, this means a shift in outdoor activities, anticipation of holidays and the start of the hockey and ski seasons. But for our less fortunate and economically vulnerable neighbors our annual descent into winter poses real danger to health. For these individuals, access to warm clothing is essential to allow them to continue to function normally during the winter months and to avoid cold-related physical injury, such as frost-bite and hypothermia. While many understand this risk as it pertains to our homeless citizens, those in precarious financial circumstances are far more numerous in our city and the lack of suitable winter clothing can limit their participation in society. These individuals are often among the working poor who are broadly represented among the client families who seek our assistance every year.
While there are no hard statistics on the number of people who lack access to suitable winter clothing in the Edmonton region, there are several indirect indicators that this need is increasing. For instance, the long-running United Way Coats for Kids and Families program reported that in 2023/24 winter, more than 7000 coats were distributed compared to just over 5000 in the 2020/21 year. This is on top of a publicized increase in cold-related emergency room visits over the past several years.
To add some organization-specific context behind our request, during the winter of 2023/24 we had over 1700 individuals come to us for assistance during the winter months. While we have not typically monitored the outflow of winter clothing (it is simply given out as available and requested), our volunteers noted an alarming increase in demand for winter items. In many cases we had to turn people away who were specifically looking for coats.
As a consequence, an internal fundraising campaign was initiated to raise emergency funds to purchase winter clothing items for distribution. The resulting $2000 that was raised was stretched to the max by the ingenuity of our volunteers, but still did not come close to meeting the demand from our clients.
Through the help of the Field Law Community Fund, we would like to provide warm winter clothing to an additional 200 clients during this upcoming winter.

Who Will it Benefit?

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul Edmonton Council serves the less fortunate in the Edmonton region, regardless of creed, ethnic or social background, health, gender, political opinions, or any other identifiable characteristic. We seek to support and promote their dignity by serving with love, respect, justice and joy and most importantly - without judgment. We endeavor to give a hand up to those in need, allowing them to retain their dignity and pride as they struggle through crisis situations or difficult circumstances. We do this by assisting them to function as independently as possible and to help them stretch their financial resources to cover their necessities.
Our client-families (and the potential beneficiaries of a grant) are a very diverse group, comprising refugees, new Canadians (or new Albertans), urban Indigenous, families recovering from financial setbacks or struggling with the increased cost of living, and people starting their lives over after escaping addiction and or abuse. Over the past couple of years, we have seen a considerable growth in the number of families with children seeking our assistance, many of whom often require winter clothing.