Mike Kirkup, pictured here with ShelterCare Operations Manager Ebenezer Agyei, is excited to know his monthly support is helping address big challenges our community is facing, like homelessness.
Mike Kirkup likes to solve problems.
Mike came to Waterloo Region as a University of Waterloo computer science student in 1996 and has spent his entire career working in the tech community, including Research in Motion, as well as his current role as Chief Technology Officer at EnPowered.
And through all of these years, there was one constant.
“Working in tech, we constantly look at problems, and how we’re going to fix them,” said Mike.
In the last few years, homelessness has become more visible in Waterloo Region through various encampments, including in a park near Mike’s home.
“You couldn’t hide it anymore,” said Mike. “Everyone was seeing it up close.”
So when he recently worked a political campaign to help his friend, Shannon Weber, run for mayor, Mike was troubled by a message he kept hearing – that the government should step in to solve the homelessness problem in our community.
“It struck me the wrong way. Where is our personal sense of responsibility?”
When Mike started looking for solutions to homelessness, he soon found out that community organizations, including House of Friendship, were already working on it.
“I heard the passion when people talk about House of Friendship,” said Mike. “I didn’t know we had these world-class organizations in our own backyard. I thought, ‘well this is even better – I can just support them.'”
That’s what inspired Mike to become a monthly donor at House of Friendship.
“I’ve never been a monthly donor in my life, but it makes sense,” said Mike. “Like a lot of people, I normally give annually, and try to budget it towards the end of the year. But monthly giving is really a win-win, as I don’t have to think about it anymore, and it provides continuity and stability for the organization.”
“You have to believe in the organization to just ‘set it and forget it,'” Mike added. “But if you are thinking about it and wondering if you should try it, just get to know the organization.”
Mike said he has appreciated the ‘breadth of problem-solving’ at House of Friendship.
“It would be really easy to say, because homelessness is so hard, that this is all we’re going to do. But House of Friendship is looking at how to solve the problem, by supporting families and children. It’s like when people wait too long to treat a chronic disease – it would be much easier to prevent it in the first place.”
