Stepping Into the Need

Lana Missen finds herself in the thick of Green Wood Coalition’s response to COVID-19 -- a role she never would have imagined a few short months ago. The 28-year-old supports the outreach team, spells them off when they’re weary and pitches in how ever she can to help those whose lives have been disrupted by homelessness in the midst of a pandemic.

You need only to believe in destiny to understand Lana Missen is exactly where she is supposed to be.

And where she is, on the frontlines of Green Wood Coalition’s response to COVID-19, only fate could have had a hand in.

The 28-year-old spends her days supporting David Sheffield and Nicole Whitmore at Ground Zero of Northumberland’s homelessness crisis. The Green Wood outreach team is working with people at the Transition House temporary shelter in Cobourg, at emergency accommodation in  Port Hope, on the streets, in secluded spots where a few have taken refuge -- wherever COVID-19 ambushed those who are homeless.

And none of these places is where Lana expected life to lead her.

“Green Wood has changed my life. It is the best thing that ever happened to me.” 
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Growing up in Cobourg, Lana eagerly traded small-town life for the city, earning a degree from the Ontario College of Art and Design and later specializing in art administration at Humber College.

She had a “sense” poverty and homelessness existed in Northumberland County but hadn’t witnessed it. Then in 2016, she was hired as a summer student by Green Wood. 

“It’s changed my perspective. It’s changed my understanding about really working toward having a radical sense of empathy. We all have something to offer, and we all have something to give.”

She went on to do a three-year stint in donor engagement and fundraising at Sketch, a not-for-profit organization in Toronto dedicated to arts education for marginalized youth. But worn down by city life, Lana was questioning her future. Then Green Wood called.

“I took a huge risk. I had a full-time job with benefits. I left that to work at Green Wood for three days a week over a summer. I knew it would pay my gas and my phone bill.”

The job was extended this past fall and, supplemented by other part-time work, Lana settled in as Green Wood’s Capacity Development Coordinator. Then COVID-19 struck.

“Back in 2016, I didn’t know anything about Green Wood. But coming back this time, I knew I needed Green Wood in my life, its humanity, its principles. It makes me feel whole.”

Work at the frontline of this crisis is tough. She spends her days helping people whose already tumultuous lives have been completely disrupted. 
Yet, she sees hope.

“I think we’ve been given a strange gift by the pandemic in that we can choose to keep the things that have worked and change what hasn’t. It’s really sad it’s taken a pandemic for people to notice homelessness, but it feels like there’s a lot of potential for change to happen.”