Written by Jonathan Enco, Case Manager (YFC II), Inglewood Opportunity Hub – New Horizon
At New Horizon, people often ask us what we do. The real answer rarely fits into a sentence. It lives in stories, in small moments, in the quiet turning points that rarely have witnesses.
Most of us move through life with some kind of map—family, mentors, teachers, systems that cushion our missteps. For the people we serve, the road is fraught with many unknowns and difficulties. In the case of the 3,121 unhoused individuals in our city (2024 Homeless Point-in-Time Count, Calgary Homeless Foundation) this is a Sisyphean task: no clear routes, no safe landmarks, no certainty that the next corner will offer shelter instead of danger. There is no map; their journeys are made heavier by the knowledge that others move through life with support they themselves have never had. We, as a community, have consistently fallen short on walking beside the people on this difficult path.
New Horizon, as a program, is not one but many things, and the truth is, we do what it takes. We meet people exactly as they are: exhausted, hopeful, guarded, determined, afraid, or sometimes all those things at once. And then, we do the slow work of helping them rebuild what was taken from them: stability, dignity, and the ability to imagine a future that isn’t defined by survival alone.
Much of our work looks ordinary from the outside:
A set of apartment keys changing hands.
A first grocery list.
A conversation about budgeting, or cooking, or how to call a landlord.
The goal is to walk in step not with answers, but with presence.
Teaching how to in place of doing for. A series of conversations, decisions, and moments of trust. By walking with someone until the path feels less treacherous.
We listen. We show up. We help people rebuild their sense of self. One client’s story captures this work more clearly than any definition ever could.
She arrived unhoused, pregnant, and struggling with addiction—a combination that would overwhelm most anyone. She had very little support and even less trust. What she wanted wasn’t a miracle; she wanted someone who wouldn’t leave when things became complicated.
So, we sat with her through the messier days. We celebrated the quieter victories, the ones no one else sees—the first time she advocated for herself, the first time she said, “I think I can do this” and believed it. Piece by piece, she began to reclaim a sense of self.
Today, she visits her son several times a week and is actively working toward gaining full custody. The goal that once felt too-fragile-to-name-out-loud is within her grasp. She moved from a trailer without heat to a home she chose herself; free from the constant fear of eviction. And somewhere along the way, the quiet woman who used to stand in corners became the first to greet new clients, offering the kind of welcome she once needed.
New Horizon exists in a space where compassion meets complexity. We work within—and often against—systems that are stretched thin, ensuring no one falls through the cracks. Our clients routinely have pressed up against the uncaring, unfeeling monolith of the systems we work within. At the core of everything we do is trust. For many of our clients, trust has been broken time– and-time-again—by people, by institutions, by circumstance.
They carry invisible wounds—and incredible resilience.
We rebuild it one conversation, one promise, and one act of kindness at a time.
Through validation, consistency, and compassion, we help individuals believe in themselves again.
Our Inglewood campus is more than a facility: it’s a recovery-oriented system of care. It’s a place where warmth and safety are tangible, where collaboration thrives. Through strong partnerships with the other programs of the Inglewood Opportunity Hub and local organizations, we ensure that every client is surrounded by a network of radical hospitality. Where we can shower them with the safety, care, and concern that all human beings deserve. It is a place where our clients can be safe, seen, and valued. New Horizon is more than its programs—it is a doorway, a place where possibility enters lives that have long gone without it.
And the results are transformative.
A clean apartment.
A first paycheck.
A plan for the future.
A moment of self-respect taking root.
These are not small milestones. They mark a shift from surviving to living.
But this work can’t happen alone. It takes people who believe, as we do, that every person deserves a chance to rebuild. New Horizon is an engine of possibility. Each person helps us to expand our reach, strengthen our supports, and help more people turn hardship into hope.
Together, we can do more than change lives.
We can help people write new stories—stories of courage, healing, and belonging.
When we lift people up, entire communities rise.
