On the outside, they look very different — as if they had little, if anything, in common.

But Taylor Soroka, the 26-year-old co-founder of the Jasper Place Wellness Centre, shared a vision with the two middle-age men struggling with homelessness who helped her tape 54 posters end-to-end across the centre's window.

"Hope meant to the three of us, I think, that we have power in what we can do," Soroka said Thursday.

"Our backgrounds aren't the same, but that doesn't change that we go through problems and have feelings and ideas and issues that we walk through in our own lives that are hard for us.

"We can use our voice and come together in things we believe in."

Each poster, printed in black ink on plain white paper, bore the same message: "If you are feeling alone or defeated after what happened on the world stage please know that you are loved and worthy of a better future. Together we will fight for the equality of all humans, everywhere."

"Together we will fight for the equality of all humans, everywhere," the posters say. (Sam Martin/CBC)

A humbling moment

On Tuesday, Soroka was dismayed to learn the two women vying to lead the Alberta Progressive Conservatives had dropped out, citing harassment and intimidation.

On Wednesday, after the first female candidate to run for U.S. president was defeated by Donald Trump, she said she began to feel helpless.

For someone who's dedicated her life to empowering others, it was a humbling moment.

Soroka said she found it difficult to remind herself that she was still in a position to do that work.

"When you have a key to a door that's locked, you open it and you hold it for everyone else who doesn't have that key," she said.

"You can sit and you can be quiet and you can be hurt by what's happening, or you can say, 'Actually, I don't agree with this, and that's not how I'm going to live my life.'"

'This is what we stand for'

The Jasper Place Wellness Centre, at 15210 Stony Plain Rd., was started 10 years ago by Soroka and her father, Murray Soroka.

Murray Soroka said the outreach facility, which works with some of the city's most vulnerable residents, is a safe place to have discussions about equality — it embodies the message now plastered in its window.

"We might think it, but we need to put it out in front of our lives and say, 'This is what we believe in. This is what we stand for," he said.

"It's not a huge bold step, but it's a step. And if we can talk about it, and get other people to talk about equality, that's important."

Walking by the wellness centre Friday morning, Ahmad Ali stopped to read the posters.

Ahmad Ali reads the posters on the window of the Jasper Wellness Centre Friday morning. (Sam Martin/CBC)

Ali said the U.S. presidential election highlighted that there were various groups across the country feeling isolated, ignored and at a disadvantage.

But he added that those feelings resonate in Alberta and Edmonton as well.

"It's a beautiful message and I hope people will actually understand more and be more compassionate and put themselves in other people's shoes and understand their viewpoints from their perspectives," Ali said.

roberta.bell@cbc.ca

@roberta__bell