Joshua Stainton

281 Wellington Street, Salvation Army Centre of Hope

My name is Joshua Stainton, we’re standing in front of 281 Wellington Street, the Salvation Army Center of Hope. I’ve been working with the Salvation Army for about 20 years.

It’s rewarding. Challenging, but rewarding. Being able to help families stay together, help parents keep their kids, and keep the lights on and the heat going, that’s very important to me. I enjoy that very much.

I helped a couple that had come to London. We helped them years ago, they paid off their loan and they were looking for new last month’s rent, they had a line on a place, having lost three apartments by the time they got the money together the landlord had rented it to someone else. So, they had a landlord that was going to hold it for them for three days. Typically, it takes about two to three days to get approved before we can get a cheque out to someone. We’d worked with this landlord in the past though, and so they knew the folks were coming to us. I had a couple of cancellations that day so I was able to contact the landlord, do the processing and everything I needed to in one day, so that we got the information to the landlord that they were approved and the money was as good as theirs, and the landlord let them move in over the weekend.

As part of what we do, we also refer for other agencies that are able to help people outfit their apartments with furniture for free, household items – pots, pans, dishes, cutlery, drapery, clothing, all of that stuff. So those referrals were a real, a real blessing to them. I say that because my manager forwarded to me a phone message where they called and said such beautiful things about what I had done for them and what it meant to them and that she was to make sure she held on to me if I ever mentioned that I was going to leave. You have to hold on to those good stories, with a very tight grip, because that’s what keeps you going.