Welcome, and thank you so much for taking the time to learn more about St. James Community Service Society and about what has happened at the Society over the last year.

At a recent public presentation on homelessness the work of the American poet Mary Oliver was quoted. In one of her poems she asks whether one can be "passionate about the ideal...yet commit no labour to its cause?" It's a powerful question that resonates at St. James in so many ways today.

On one level, it keeps us mindful of the well documented social ills so pervasive in our community. Our staff and volunteers do more than a job: they work, usually in very challenging circumstances, to bring support, care, and a sense of possibility to the most marginalized and vulnerable. On behalf of the Board of Directors, we thank them all.

Yet even as we continue this work, the "ideal" towards which we are striving is shifting and evolving. The public debate around these issues, especially homelessness and the future of the Downtown Eastside, has seen remarkable shifts even in the course of a year. More than ever, we are attuned to the growing public sentiment that the status quo is simply no longer acceptable. The labour to which we are committing ourselves can no longer be just to "manage" these problems today, but instead towards transforming and solving them for the future.

We are equally passionate about our organization and how it supports the work we undertake. As we continually develop and mature as an employer and not-for-profit Society, we reaffirm our passion for creating and maintaining a culture of excellence, for empowering leadership and efficient management, and to being an employer of choice in our sector. Here too, the bar of the "ideal" is being raised all the time.

Working collaboratively with others towards the greater good is also a new standard, and St. James continues to strive to meet this challenge. Our service portfolio is responsive and dynamic and we are setting new goals and standards for how we undertake our business and how we connect to the community.

It is the passion and labour of many that makes all this work possible: enabling and sustaining us even in times of economic hardship. We offer our heartfelt thanks to all the Society's individual, corporate, and foundation donors, as well as, the government authorities and ministries that fund us. Every contribution makes a big difference in the lives of those we serve.

As Mary Oliver concluded and told us forcefully, "Be ignited, or be gone." As we near the start of our organization's second half century, rest assured that St. James Community Service Society is very much ignited to our mission and to the building of our organization...and very much here to stay.

Sincerely,