History
Welcome Home is a transitional housing facility serving newly-arrived refugees in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. It is a program of International Teams Canada and came into being in the summer of 2004. Ray of Hope owns the building, which includes the Morning Glory Cafe, as well the Oasis Drop-in Centre, a separate building at the back of the property. Ray of Hope originally renovated the upper floor for Project Oak, a program targeting street youth. It did not succeed at this location and the facility remained more or less empty for the next few years.
Chester Venhuizen was the first director of Oasis Drop-in Centre and also participated in the implementation of Project Oak. Thus, he was aware of the now empty lodging that could be used by refugees.
Chester became involved with Sudanese refugee arrivals to KW in 2002. This led him to go to Africa several times, visiting Sudan, Uganda and Kenya. Barbara Lehto went with him on one of those trips in January 2003. Barbara had been working for the KW Reception Centre for many years, assisting newly-arrived refugees to settle in the KW area. She did not expect to return to Africa so soon after her first trip, but in the fall of 2003 several people began to inquire about going to visit the same places that she and Chester had gone to. Chester was unavailable to take a team that winter and so Barbara made the decision to go again.
One of the team members on this second trip was Gord Skopnik. Gord had returned from Germany with his family earlier that year. He was a 17 year veteran missionary with International Teams and had returned to Canada to take on the role of Refugee Director for the IT Canadian office.
When Gord and Barbara returned in February 2004, Chester and Gordon began conversations with Ray of Hope regarding the possibility of opening a refugee housing project above Morning Glory Cafe. Ray of Hope’s CEO, Ron Hallman, was very agreeable to the proposal and it only took a few more discussions to agree to this joint project. Ray of Hope was only too glad to have the property used and also to receive some income from it. They were very fair in regards to their charges and also their services to the program. They sent in their maintenance crews to paint and clean at the beginning of May, 2004 and everything was ready to go by the end of June, 2004.
Lloyd and Christy Hipel had recently returned from Ecuador and were interested in being the house supervisors of this new endeavour. They went through various interviews and were ready to move in by the end of June, 2004. Their job was to befriend the residents, to supervise activities, to deal with problems and generally be a presence in the home. Lloyd led a Bible study once a week. There were community suppers and Barbara and Gord were in and out most every day. Gord’s position was that of Program Director; he was involved in a lot of public relations work in the first year, creating awareness in the community and the churches. Barbara worked in a volunteer capacity, collecting rent for the landlord- Ray of Hope and dealing with individual concerns. She was still working at the KW Reception Centre at the time and so was the main referral link for new residents.
Chester made it clear that although he was thrilled to be a part of the start-up of this ministry, he could not be a part of the day-to-day running of it. It was now up to the rest of us who were involved to establish this program. A lot of ideas were hashed out and different approaches tried to see what best met the needs of the residents. In the first year, clients from Ethiopia, Columbia, Sudan, Pakistan, El Salvador, Cuba and China were given a new place to call home.
Compiled by Barbara Lehto