Lock It Up! Services

The Cause

Project Description
Lock It Up! Services is a business that offers the vulnerable population in Medicine Hat both casual cash employment and long term / short term storage for their belongings.

Storage:
Lock It Up! Services will offer storage services 7 days a week from 7:00am – 9:00pm daily. This offers some flexibility for people wanting to access the service early in the morning and into the evening, as it will help people plan out their day.
Lock It Up! Services will have a series of different sized lockers available. People can choose to store their belongings for a daily rate, a weekly rate or a monthly rate, depending on their individual needs. Lockers can be rented on a 30-day contract, which can be renewed every 30 days as long as the payments are up-to-date.

Supervised Cash Employment:
Many of the vulnerable people that are homeless or at risk of homelessness face numerous barriers that prevent them from creating some value and worth in their lives. One of the barriers is not being able to gain employment due to many factors including having a criminal record check and no having no way to gain things like ID and experience,

Lock It Up! Services will offer cash paid employment on a casual basis to a certain number of successful candidates.
The rate will be $20.00/hr cash and will be paid out to them at the end of each shift. The available shifts will vary week to week but will not be any longer than 2-3hrs a shift

Tasks will include but are not limited to: general housekeeping duties, sanitizing lockers, emptying contents from expired rentals, basic office cleanliness as well as frontline intake and support.
The employees will be directly supervised by their workers if they are in a supported program or by the Lock It Up! Services staff when they come onto their scheduled shifts.

Who Will it Benefit?

The value that Lock It Up! Services offers, is as follows:

Lock It Up! Services adds value to the community in the following ways:
- The different City of Medicine Hat communities, will gain value through cleaner neighborhoods.
- The homeless and vulnerable population in the City will have a safe place to leave their belongings.
- Vulnerable members of the community will gain paid work experience.
- The participants in the paid employment program will be able to build a resume from the work experience.

Capacity of Proponent:
The need for these services is high. I know this from the 14 years’ experience I have working in the human services field, that these 2 services are gaps that needs to be filled. People seek a location to leave their belongings and they can be at ease knowing they are safe and that they will be monitored. Providing employment for people who normally are unable to find work due to different barriers can develop skills including follow through, consistency, following direction and being able to now build a resume going forward. In Medicine Hat, this does not exist for our people who need it.
I have had the opportunity to be in many different roles in the field, from front line Support work to case management to management. Working frontline in homeless shelters it is an evident concern because they are only allowed 1 bag for their locker and if they come with 3 or 4 bigger bags they have nowhere to put them, so they choose to sleep outside instead of potentially having their belongings stolen.