Halifax Communauté Nouvelles

Dr. Colin Van Zoost knows the effects that homelessness can have on someone's health. He runs the Walk in Our Shoes volunteer foot clinic at St. Andrews United Church in Halifax. "When you're dealing with people who … rely on their feet for their survival, a simple foot problem can soon lead into quite a significant issue," said Van Zoost, who's been working with the homeless for a decade.

Canadian lawyers are mobilizing at airports across the country to assist people affected by U.S. President Donald Trump's travel ban on all entries from seven Muslim-majority nations. They are volunteering their time to help anyone who gets turned away at American security checkpoints. "I've never been more proud to be a lawyer," said Janet Thompson-Price, an immigration lawyer in Saint John who is helping to co-ordinate the effort in response to a request from her U.S. counterparts.

His victory confirmed, Lindell Smith thanked a cheering crowd that had gathered last October at Alteregos. Beaming, he then offered praise for the woman who’d managed the campaign that saw him become the first African Nova Scotian to win a Halifax city council seat in nearly 20 years. “Like me, Jalana is embedded in this community,” Smith said, acknowledging a figure at the back of the room. “And like me, she cares about you.”

The Sydney River native will leave on Feb. 15 and for the next six months will volunteer at Sarah’s Covenant House, a community of family-style foster homes that care for children and young adults with medical and special needs, doing behaviour therapy using applied behaviour analysis. This will be the second time MacNeil has spent time in India as a volunteer. In 2012, she spent a month at the same facility.

Work is now underway to repair damage at Hope for Wildlife, a week after freezing rain and heavy winds hit the rehabilitation centre in Seaforth, N.S. Owner Hope Swinimer said the centre, which has provided food, shelter and medical care for more than 20,000 animals since 1997, saw varying levels of damage from the storm.

From occupational therapy to dentistry, students from an array of health-care programs are combining forces to bring their growing expertise right to the Sunday dinner table of some of Halifax's homeless. Students from Dalhousie University, Mount Saint Vincent University and paramedic college Medavie HealthEd are launching the Halifax Outreach Prevention Education Support (HOPES) health centre in the coming weeks.