We call our newsletter
three P’s. It stands for
Place Purpose Progress.
Please read on and find out
more about Fred Victor
and our three P’s.
WINTER 2010
Routes Back to Employment
You might say that Fred Victor is something
of an expert on hiring people with lived
experience of homelessness. So is Change
Toronto, a small, but mighty partner
organization of Fred Victor’s.
On Saturday, November 20th, Fred
Victor’s Enza Trentadue and Change
Toronto’s Mandy Ashton were two of
four panelists who addressed, Tenant
Involvement: Moving Beyond Volunteerism
at the Ontario Non-Profit Housing
Association’s fall conference.
The goal of the panel was to help
other community housing organizations to
overcome some of the barriers to hiring
tenants and clients.
As Fred Victor’s Open House Drop-in
Manager, Enza has hired tenants and
clients as assistants in the Drop-in. Peer
assistants work in the art program, the
gardening program and the mental health
and justice program. Shelley Lambie who
introduces this newsletter was hired as a
peer assistant.
Practical and inspiring, Enza says,
“There are thousands of ways of overcoming barriers to employing service users and
people with lived experience of homelessness. You have to deal with the real issues.”
She describes how she and her staff
problem-solve issues. “Our peer assistants
were so intimidated going for training at the
Toronto Hostel Training Centre, they
weren’t consistently showing up. So we
started hiring all three peer workers at the
same time so they now go together as a
group. Also, we’ve become more flexible
about the actual courses they take.
Hi! My name is Shelley
Lambie and I would love to
introduce you to this issue of
the Fred Victor (FV) newsletter.
This issue is full of good news and I want
you to know about a wonderful opportunity FV just gave me which has changed
my life.
I got the chance to work as a peer
assistant for the Open House Drop-in.
Since the last time I worked formally
was more than 15 years ago, it felt like
the breaking down of a barrier like the
Berlin Wall.
I lived in Fred Victor Housing for five
years until two years ago, and I volunteered in Friends Restaurant kitchen
shortly before securing the peer position
in March 2009.
Working as a peer assistant was fun
and satisfying. The staff were all great to
work with and helped me to use the
computers. Moreover, it was nice to earn
some money.
I met Fiona of Street Health while on
the job at Fred Victor and was able to get
a position as a consumer lead with the
Street Health team carrying out the
Ontario Common Assessment of Need
survey. We’re getting ready to start
interviewing and I’m excited.
Thanks FV for giving me that first
chance to work again. I feel like I’m
contributing something worthwhile and
feel more alive again.
Assistants take the courses that most
closely fit where they’re heading in the long
run. We also check in with them at the
beginning, middle and end of their contracts to see where they’re at with the
goals they’ve set for themselves.”
In 2007, Change Toronto hosted an
afternoon of frank conversation for 22
people who were or had been homeless.
Stunningly, they learned that participants
contributed thousands of hours of volunteer
work to more than 50 organizations. Job
descriptions included board member,
facilitator, counsellor, researcher, fundraiser,
program ambassador and many more.
Fred Victor has risen to the challenge
of helping gifted volunteers find lasting jobs
that pay a living wage. The Open House is
only one program that has taken up the
challenge. Friends Catering Company hires
food services volunteers. Fred Victor’s
Employment and Training Services are
devoted to helping individuals find, train
for and keep work that fits.
Mandy Ashton is Change Toronto’s coordinator. Her organization oversees the
Cooling Centre Project. People are hired to
operate the City’s cooling centres during
extreme heat alerts and then supported in
finding ongoing paid work.
Change Toronto’s report titled, Trusting
Potential: the Benefits and How-to of
Hiring People with Lived Experience of
Homelessness was just released. It outlines
10 strategies and actions for social services
to address barriers to employing people who
were or are homeless. Read a copy of the
report by visiting Fred Victor’s new website
at www.fredvictor.org and clicking the
Community Housing, research section.
In this Issue
Routes back to employment . ........1
People, place and purpose
at Fred Victor Housing...................2
Fred Victor’s Caledonia shelter
teaches tolerance..........................3
Sharing Money Smarts . ................4
Enza Trentadue and Mandy Ashton were panelists at the
Ontario Non-profit Housing Association’s fall conference.
1
Mark’s
Message
The stories in this issue of the
newsletter say it best. Fred Victor’s
housing, services and programs
are starting points. They create
new experiences, new living conditions, and new knowledge. These
starting points not only benefit the
homeless and low income people
we serve, but are a benefit to our
neighbourhood and our city.
So when you support Fred Victor
with your dollars, you’re starting
something! And in this way you are
integral to improving the lives of our
tenants and the city you live in.
People, Place and Purpose
at Fred Victor Housing
Bernadette sits quietly in her apartment
knitting a scarf. She is surrounded by her
own creativity: hand-painted pictures of
clowns and cartoon characters animate
the walls of her bedroom. She shows off a
fantastic canvas calendar for 2010 which
she designed herself. Her next big project
is to make another similar calendar for
2011. But, she has to get to the art supply
store for some canvas to do that. She’s
missing the knitting group right now and
hopes it will start up again.
Thank you so much for all your
support in 2010. Please give
generously to Fred Victor. Your gift
translates into our gift to others, and
everyone is better for it! We need
your support as much as ever.
Bernadette says
the best thing about
living in Fred Victor’s
redesigned housing
at 145 Queen Street
is the staff who are
there “24/7 – if
there is any problem
whatsoever, there is
someone there.”
Very best wishes to you
and your family and friends
during this special season!
Mark Aston
Executive Director, Fred Victor
Friends Catering
Friends Catering
Company catered
Street Haven’s 45th
Anniversary event
for 150 people on
October 28th at the
City of Toronto Archives
on Spadina Avenue.
The Honourable David C. Onley,
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario was one
of the special guest speakers. Friends
Catering produced their famous finger
foods including pinwheel sandwiches,
Moroccan chicken skewers, samosas,
feta and spinach tartlets, dessert
and fruit platters. Guests were very
impressed with the quality and quantity
of the food.
Why not use Friends Catering
for your event? Check out the
menu at www.fredvictor.org
under Community Programs.
2
Bernadette, in her room, knitting, is
the perfect picture of someone at home.
Gentle and quiet-spoken, she says, “I’m a
contented tenant. I love the place. It’s cozy
and comfortable.”
Fred Victor housing at the corner of
Queen and Jarvis Streets has been a
refuge for people struggling to find a home,
a job, some friends, some stability for 116
years. And it has served in this capacity
extremely well.
However, over the past seven or eight
years, it became clear that some changes
in how we were housing people needed
to take place. A collaborative study by Fred
Victor and the Wellesley Institute titled
Towards Effective Strategies for Harm
Reduction Housing confirmed this. (Read
study at www.fredvictor.org)
So, a big and ultimately successful
fundraising campaign was launched in
2006. This past spring the rebuilding of
the Queen and Jarvis site began. The
renovated housing units on the Jarvis
Street side of the building were finished
on time and tenants who were in temporary
lodging moved back in mid-October.
They were thrilled with the changes.
Unit size has been increased and each
person now has their own bathroom. While
tenants continue to share an apartment,
there is much more private space for
each person.
Bernadette has not always experienced
this feeling of contentment. “I was shelterbound [lived in emergency shelters] for five
years,” she says. She says she ended up in
shelters because she did not stay with the
good way, that she “ended up doing the
wrong thing and I didn’t pay my rent.”
Bernadette came to Fred Victor Housing
through our Women’s Hostel. She didn’t
do art before she came to Fred Victor’s art
program a few years ago. This is hard to
believe when you see how much art and
creativity give shape to her life now. She
also visits Fred Victor’s Back to Basics
program twice a week to learn about
computers. Bernadette says the best thing about
living at Fred Victor is the security system
in the building and the staff who are there
“24/7 – if there is any problem whatsoever,
there is someone there.” She loves the
neighbourhood too because she’s a
bargain hunter and she can get to secondhand shops easily as well find a good pizza.
Fred Victor’s redesigned logo and
tagline reads: “Fred Victor, helping people
find place and purpose”. Surely, there
is no better example of Fred Victor’s
mission in action than Bernadette’s gentle,
creative and content presence in our newly
renovated housing.
Fred Victor’s Caledonia
shelter teaches tolerance
If you’re heading for Fred Victor Bethlehem
United Church shelter, you have to catch
the southbound bus from Yorkdale subway
station and pass through a commercial
zone that boasts plenty of drapery, flooring
and furniture stores on Caledonia Road.
In 2006, Bethlehem United apostolic
church partnered with Fred Victor to transform an old warehouse into an emergency
shelter. The church continues to run the
kitchen service and Fred Victor takes care
of everything else.
The shelter is remarkable for a number
of reasons. First, it’s the only pet-friendly
shelter in the city. You’re as likely to see a
cat or a dog as a human being. Well, not
quite. The shelter can accommodate 60
people and 10 pets. Second, it is one of
the few shelters in the city where couples
can stay together in a private room. And
third, it’s a place rich in human experience
and diversity.
But, what happens when you provide a
temporary home for 60 people who are all
very different from one another? Shelter
manager Erin Bradford talks about how
staff handle the discomfort of shelter resi-
Fred Victor’s shelter at Caledonia is
a case study in bridging differences
between people.
Website Relaunched
dents who find themselves suddenly sharing intimate space with people who seem
to be completely different from themselves.
“We’ve done a lot of work here on
educating people around difference. For
example, a lot of the people who use
the shelter have never met a transsexual
person. So, we’ve hosted workshops on
trans inclusion. That can be a really big
learning curve for a lot of people.”
Each month, one staff person takes on
a topic that helps to build understanding
and tolerance. They would develop posters
that give information on various religious
or cultural days such as Rosh Hashanah
(Jewish New Year) or Diwali (Hindu
Festival of Lights).
Another month, there would be a
celebration that coincides with a City
event such as Pride or Carabana. These
celebrations help build bridges between
people of different sexual orientations and
gender, or race.
The shelter has also used a personal
approach to creating awareness. Erin
explains, “When we have served residents
with different challenges and barriers,
such as Huntington’s disease or Multiple
Sclerosis, we have talked to the resident
facing these challenges, and with their
consent, put up posters that contain
information about what they are facing.”
There’s nothing like bringing another
person’s real life right into your home,
right to your kitchen table, as a way of
increasing understanding and tolerance.
So, while many of us might never think of a
homeless shelter as a good place to build
the just and tolerant society, Fred Victor
Bethlehem United Shelter makes a point of
it every day.
Check out
Fred Victor’s new
website at
www.fredvictor.org!
It went live in mid-November.
You’ll get all the news there!
It’s easy to donate online through
the website, too.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide responsive,
accessible and innovative housing
and services for people who are
experiencing homelessness and
poverty, and to advocate for a more
equitable society.
Director, Capital
Fundraising &
Communications
Jane Truemner
Writing
Carol Watson
Graphics & Layout
GravityInc.ca
Printing
Imperial Graphics
Charitable
Registration
#118931377RR
59 Adelaide Street
East, 6th floor
Toronto, Ontario
M5C 1K6
T 416-364-8228
F 416-364-4728
www.fredvictor.org
Please join in our efforts to provide emergency shelter, food and counselling for people when it’s needed most.
Support from people lke you will ensure our programs and services are kept effective, innovative and respond to
the real needs of the community.
Yes! I will help people live with dignity.
Enclosed is my tax-deductible gift of:
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OR
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Thank you for your support!
If you would like to donate over the phone, please call Leah at 416-364-8228 ext. 309 or online visit www.fredvictor.org
3
Sharing Money Smarts
State Street Canada volunteers facilitated
a conversation about money with a
very diverse group of low-income and
homeless women at Fred Victor Women’s
Day Program in November. The talk that
morning was candid and helpful. State
Street is an international investment firm
and the volunteers were from their Global
Outreach Program. This is the second
year they have offered the workshop.
Anja Vukovic is the team leader on the
project. A diligent and committed worker,
she explains how the team prepared for
the workshop. “Last year I received a
lot of questions after the event which
I believed needed to be responded to.
So this year I wanted to make the event
more of a conversation over coffee.
I wanted the women to have an opportunity to share amongst themselves their
financial struggles.”
State Street volunteers prepared a
smart little booklet that explained how
to determine fixed expenses, deal with
debt, and save even very small amounts
of money. The booklet would be a good
resource for anyone.
Thank You!
Corporations
Autodesk Canada Co.
Ivanhoe Cambridge Inc.
V-Day Michener
CAN AM
Foundations
Aqueduct Foundation – Philpot
Fund
Canadian Auto Workers Social
Justice Fund
State Street’s Global Outreach Team talk about money with women at the
Women’s Day Program.
One person asked her small group if
they bought clothes on sale. An awkward
silence followed as women looked around
at each other silently wondering, “Is it ok
to admit we don’t buy clothes?” Finally,
one of the women said, “Fred Victor is a
good organization. So, each Monday there
are clothes here.” The women described
how second-hand clothes were laid out on
tables for them to choose.
State Street has been a faithful
supporter of Fred Victor’s work over the
past eight years. In keeping with their
tradition of outreach, Anja says, “Many
women gave me big thanks. I hope to
continue this event in the years to come,
hopefully for single mothers on the ODSP
program.”
The morning discussion ended with an
up-beat observation by Calabash, a wise
woman with a lifetime of experience living
on little. She concluded: “You don’t have
to be rich, you just have to share.” Thanks
to State Street volunteers for so gracefully
sharing their knowledge and facilitating an
important conversation about money.
The following organizations donated $500 or more to Fred Victor between
April 1, 2010 and November 15, 2010.
Jimmy Devellano Children’s
Foundation
Peter Graham Trust
Schachter Family Fund (Toronto
Community Foundation)
The Kensington Foundation
The Lloyd Carr-Harris Foundation
The Norman and Margaret
Jewison Charitable Foundation
The Paloma Foundation
Anonymous
59 Adelaide Street East, 6th Floor
Toronto, Ontario M5C 1K6
www.fredvictor.org
Estates
Estate of Ernest Birmann
Estate of Howard D. Graham
Churches
Annesley U.C.W.
Beaver Bible Class
Eglinton – St. George’s
United Church (Outreach
Committee)
Knox United Church
Benevolent (Scarborough)
Islington U.C.W.
Scarborough Bluffs U.C.W.
St. Enoch’s (Toronto United
Church Council)
Woodbridge U.C.W.