Our Journey
From 2020 to 2021, Calgary Homeless Foundation embarked on a journey to define our Purpose and Ambition to provide a clear understanding about why we exist and the specific role we play in the collective work to address homelessness in our city.
Purpose is the “why” behind everything that Calgary Homeless Foundation does. It is the reason we exist.
Ambition is what we strive to achieve.
The two are intertwined: having Purpose unites and gives us energy, while being clear about our Ambition turns that energy into positive outcomes.
To uncover our Purpose and Ambition, we engaged with multiple key stakeholders across our community, including funded agencies, government partners, urban Indigenous agencies, and those with lived experience. We also engaged with staff and board in multiple focus groups.
Thanks to the feedback of over 75 individuals, we have been able to define our Purpose and Ambition and to establish a Strategic Plan for achieving our Ambition.
Read on to learn more about our Purpose, Ambition, and Strategic Plan and to discover how they serve the people seeking a home and the supports they need to thrive.
Our Purpose:
Guiding the fight against homelessness.
Why guiding the fight against homelessness is our Purpose
Calgary Homeless Foundation is uniquely positioned within the system of care to observe the many complicating factors that affect those faced with or experiencing homelessness.
Our broad line of sight gives us a deep understanding of the cause-and-effect dynamics of homelessness. This insight, delivered as an arm’s length advisor, enables us to inspire governments, service providers and our community to undertake a shared responsibility to maximize our collective impact in the fight against homelessness.
Listen to our Executive Leadership talk about what our Purpose means to them and to our organization.
Our Ambition:
By 2025, we will be recognized as the authoritative guide on how governments, service providers, and community leaders, in our community and beyond, can best leverage their combined resources and programs in a unified fight against homelessness.
To accomplish this, we will:
- Serve as the trusted advisor to all orders of government, the business community and all Calgarians towards building a coordinated and comprehensive response to the complicating issues affecting homelessness.
- Promote the reconciliation necessary to break down barriers by giving, receiving, listening, and reaching out in love.
- Advocate with unwavering conviction for the co-creation, with community, of a system-wide approach to serving people experiencing homelessness.
- Forge an innovative path for targeted research, powerful data analytics, a cutting-edge technology platform, and a sponsored forum for sharing knowledge and best practices.
Our Focus to 2025: Strategic Plan
Guiding the Fight Against Homelessness: Strategic Plan to 2025 is our strategy for achieving our Ambition to be recognized as the authoritative guide in conducting the unified fight against homelessness.
Our Strategic Plan, approved by our Board in June 2021, identifies where we will focus our efforts, and the initiatives we will execute in the next four years in pursuit of our Ambition.
