Reaching Out

St. Paul’s reaches out to our community in a variety of ways. Throughout the year, we support different organizations and there are some with whom we are in a special relationship.

St. Paul’s works closely with Kerr Street Mission. Kerr Street Mission offers support to the region of Halton. They offer program and activities for all ages. St. Paul’s partners with KSM and their Neighbour Care Network, where we offer financial assistance as needed for individuals and where members of St. Paul’s are partnered with individuals and families to support them as they work on a plan that will make them more stable.

St. Paul’s also works closely with Wesley, in Hamilton.

A new endeavour is to give financial support to the Kiva organization.

Current projects

The United Churches of Oakville are working together to help survivors of human trafficking.

Something shocking is happening in our town.  In their most recent annual report SAVIS of Halton (Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Services) reported assisting 64 survivors of human trafficking. Children as young as 12 years have been ensnared through social media, then groomed, coerced, exploited and sometimes made drug dependent by the perpetrators of this crime. The victims cross all social and economic groups and some are trafficked right out of our local high schools in hotels in our community. In their 2021 Annual Report Halton Regional Police reported that they laid human trafficking charges against 12 individuals on a total of 82 charges.

Prevention programs are in place to help educate young people and their parents about the dangers and warning signs of potential threats. Therefore, the United Churches of Oakville have banded together to focus on the huge need of assisting survivors.

Our focus will be to raise funds to support Restorations Second Stage Homes, a local organization that supports survivors of sexual exploitation and trafficking by providing long term residential housing, survivor-led peer programming and holistic care. An important service is Nancy’s House in Burlington. There, survivors can receive the life skills training and counselling they require to overcome the trauma of their experiences and build new lives.

The following United churches are supporting this appeal: St. John’s, Glen Abbey, Maple Grove, Walton, St. Paul’s, Munn’s, Palermo, and Trinity. In order to make the collection of donations simple the churches have elected Maple Grove United Church to receive the funds. For online donations please go to:  www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/78830 and from the ‘Apply your donation…’ dropdown menu select option #10, Abolish Human Trafficking, and then complete the form and submit.  For other payment options, please go to www.maplegroveunitedchurch.org and scroll down to the Donations section. Depending upon your selection you will receive a tax receipt for your donation either at the end of your online transaction or at the beginning of next year. You can also write a cheque to St. Paul’s United Church and put Nancy’s House in the subject line.

You can find out more about abolishing human trafficking at 4oneOakville.