Carmichael Outreach to offer services out the front door

Carmichael Outreach may be closing its building, but it will continue reaching out the door to help those in need in Regina during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rochelle Berenyi is the communications, advocacy and projects officer for Carmichael Outreach. She said the team has come up with a plan to safely continue serving the people who depend on them.

“We usually serve about 200 or so meals a day, so that was one of the biggest challenges as far as crowding and the virus goes,” she said.

“Rather than having everyone crowd indoors, we’ll be doing our meal program through our front door and serving outdoors so that people can hopefully at least space out a little bit more rather than grouping inside.”

Carmichael will offer the same takeout service for their free coffee in the mornings. They will hand out toiletries through the hygiene program and free pet food on Monday mornings.

“Our children’s needs program: We hand out diapers, wipes, formula and milk. So in order to make sure that we didn’t have to end that program entirely, we basically just limit it to 9 am to 12 pm on Mondays and Fridays, again through the front door of our building,” Berenyi explained.

The housing support team will continue operating by phone but won’t be taking on any new clients. Berenyi said they provide housing services to some of the most vulnerable people, including those who are HIV-positive and can’t risk exposure to the virus at all.

Berenyi said Carmichael is closing it’s clothing boutique for now and won’t be able to accept any physical donations, although people are encouraged to help out by donating money online or by mail.

As many employees as possible will also be working remotely from home to reduce the spread.

As for the homeless people who may need emergency shelter, Berenyi said Carmichael is planning meetings and conference calls with other community-based organizations to come up with contingency plans to help those with nowhere else to go.