Winnipeg Urban Plunge

Sept. 29- Oct.1

Most people who have heard of Outtatown have heard about Urban Plunges. But what exactly are they? I didn’t know myself until I participated in the Winnipeg Urban Plunge last week. In short, you stay at the Winnipeg Centre Vineyard church on Main Street in the North End, and learn about poverty: what it is, what causes it, what it looks like, and what is being done to help the people who are affected by it. This is part of what I experienced.

On our first day of the Urban Plunge, Site 1 was divided into seven groups - one male per group - and we took part in “The Amazing Race.” This entailed walking around downtown Winnipeg and completing various tasks, such as buying coffee for someone, taking photos of murals, praying for people and finding the home/business of two people who live in and work with the community, Travis and Harvey. We used maps to help familiarize ourselves with the area, interacted with people living on the street, talked to members of various organizations dedicated to building community in the North End, and visited the organizations to actually see what they were doing for the people and the community as a whole. Through all these activities, we were learning about the background of the situation in the North End, and at the same time, seeing it with our own eyes.

My most memorable moment from that day was standing on the corner of Portage and Main with my team, trying to decipher our next clue, when a scruffy-looking man came up to our huddle and tried to scare us by saying “hello” in a growling, menacing voice. Instead of responding with fear, or distain at his appearance, we responded in love, and cheerfully said hello back, and each party went their separate ways laughing at what had just taken place. That, to me, was one of the opportunities we had to treat people with respect and dignity, and without judgment, the way Jesus would have treated them if He were here.

By Emma Purser

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**Due to the nature of the Winnipeg Urban Plunge we do not have that many photos and the ones that we have put up are not representative of all that we did during the Plunge. Due to sensitivity and respect to people living in the north end of Winnipeg, photos were asked not to be taken. **

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The sidewalk reads: It's automatic when you walk on these words, you are walking in the community, you are part of this community.

Melodie and Joel, professional dishwashers at Siloam Mission

Clothes Bank at Siloam Mission

This is a backyard that we decided to help clean out. This is us before we started.

This is us at the end of the day. Next spring there will be a community garden.

Ashley, Kendra, Jenna, Nikkita, Shannon, Jeremy, Carolyn, Kristin, Rachael.

Kendra and Shannon working hard at getting the mortar off the bricks. The bricks were from an old chimney and now the bricks will be used as the border of the community garden.



Rachael making sure the border is straight and leveled.

Jeremy swinging away at the ground.

This group did a needs assesment and walked around observing what they saw in the neighbourhoods in the North End. Here they are discussing what they saw, experienced and learned.

Melodie, Nikkita, Heather, Ethan, Jenna, break time with Erica (Urban Plunge leader)

Hope in a mural.

At the end of the day: Rebecca and Jason tuckered out!