I have been presenting a series of workshops to Calgary Police on homelessness. Every Tuesday morning, I work with different officers on perceptions, views, ideas, opinions around homelessness.

It is enlightening.

It is inspiring.

It is uplifting work.

There was a time when I wondered if ‘authority’ would ever get it. When I thought, seriously guys, kicking someone when they’re down is not going to encourage them to get back up again, or even to believe they have the capacity to get back up again. Don’t you care?

I had a lot of judgments.

In letting my judgments go, I’ve encountered truth. Police officers do care. Very much. My experience is that officers want to make a difference. They want to play a role in ending homelessness in our city. And they are.

Yesterday, we talked about Calgary’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.

The consensus from those who work on our streets — Housing First, one of the tenets of the Plan where chronically homeless are provided housing and from there, the wrap-around services necessary to integrate them back into community, is working. Where once they saw the same, chronically homeless, usually under the influence people again and again and again, the numbers are way down.

It’s working.

We are all in this together.

We all have a role to play in ending homelessness.

What’s yours?

Perhaps, your role is simply shifting your beliefs, or perceptions about ‘who’  these people are experiencing homelessness. Maybe, all it requires for you to become engaged is to not call homeless individuals lazy, or drunks, or good-for-nothing. Maybe, it’s all about letting go of your judgments and simply allowing space for compassion to enter. Our thoughts create energy in the world and when our thoughts are focused on all that is wrong with this picture, what we see is always a picture that’s wrong.

Perhaps, your role in the continuum of ending homelessness is to donate to an agency, or volunteer your time. Maybe you already ‘get’ that people are not homeless because they had a dream of losing everything to walk our streets without hope of ever finding their way back home again. Maybe you ‘get’ that homelessness is not a dream but someone’s worst nightmare come to life. From that place of compassion you can, as the United Way invites all of us, Give. Volunteer. Act.

We can all make a difference when it comes to ending homelessness. We can all make a difference on our streets.

Working with police officers on homelessness is a gift for me. It moves me. It reminds me — it is not ‘us and them’, it is all of us working together that will make a difference.

Every police officer I have met shares a dream of making our city a better, safer place. They dream of catching criminals, dealing with the ‘bad guys’ and allowing space for everyone else to exist in harmony.

And there’s a role for each of us to play in that dream as well.

One of the things the officers often share is how frustrating it is to be chatting with a visibly homeless person and having everyday citizens walk by and tell them to ‘leave the guy alone,’ or ‘give him a break’.

I’m just trying to check on the guys well-being, the officers will say, or build a relationship, and people get on my case about abusing him. It’s not fair.

There is little that is ‘fair’ in homelessness.

What there is though is lots of room for change, for shift to happen, for miracles to unfold.

We can all make room for miracles. We can all be open to that space where lives shift, where the many awaken to the truth that who they are is not found in a bottle or a crack pipe but in the dignity of being who they were born to be when they get out from under the pain and wounds and self-hatred of their lives lived on the other side of the street.

Miracles happen when each of us awakens to the truth — We are all connected and when one person falls on the street, we all suffer. When one of us judges another, we all judge eachother. And when one of us shifts, everything shifts.

Let’s shift.

On Monday, Calgary Police Service released the first in a three-part mini-documentary series on homelessness on our streets. Originally created as a training piece for recruits and officers, Homeless in Calgary gives a raw and edgie look at the lives of those for whom ‘home’ is not a place where they are safe amidst those they love. For these individuals, home is the street. A dangerous, dark and frightening place to live. In this video, we follow two officers doing what every officer does every day — taking care of those who have lost their way on our streets.

Changing our perspectives makes a difference. Let’s let shift happen. Let’s let miracles unfold. The world will be a different place when we do.

Namaste.