She is happy to do this. “I am the salad maker… but I also peal potatoes. This week we are short of volunteers, so I’ll do whatever is required”, she beams.

Rose’s journey to CRC, eventually becoming chief salad maker, was not easy.

She grew up in Regent Park, where her parents chose to live after immigrating from England.

Money was tight. Her father worked odd jobs, once even being the driver for the Fire Chief. Her mother worked as a cook at a home for runaway girls. “She was more than a cook, though”, says Rose. “The girls would turn to her for advice”.

Life was not easy. At one point, after her parents separated, Rose’s mother even tried to give up Rose and her two brothers to Children’s Aid because she wanted a better life for them. “But, they said no, because she was too good a mom”, Rose explains.

Rose had her own difficulties. During her birth she suffered some brain damage. She went to a specialized school program at Heydon Park School until she was sixteen. As she grew up, she often felt alone. She was easily frustrated and angry and she suffered from claustrophobia. “I worry a lot and it can be very stressful”, she shares.

Her mother taught her to care for others. “We grew up around homeless people all our life,” she says. One year, when her mom received four Christmas Hampers from St Luke’s United Church, she turned around and gave two away to other needy people. This was a life lesson for Rose.

She continued living with her mom until her mother’s death in 1980. She then began receiving ODSP, which she says will come to an end soon when she turns 65 and receives old age pension. Rose now lives with her son in a two-bedroom apartment in Regent Park.

About ten years ago she discovered CRC. “I got so tired of looking at four walls with nothing to do”.

At CRC Rose found a purpose. Today she helps out at the Community Meal Program, interacts with staff and volunteers there, and assists where needed to prepare the daily meals. Creating the salads has become her specialty. And she has even become a backup singer with CRC’s community band, Inspired Souls.

“Rose is very dedicated. She has her issues – she can get angry and frustrated at times with people – but she is open to growth and when she is committed to something she follows through and never leaves until the job is done”, comments Raymond Mallozzi, Community Meal Program Coordinator. “Being at CRC allows her to work at something she is good at, at her pace”, he adds.

“Helping the homeless people was taught to me by my mother. I am a bit of a loner, so I like being part of CRC. I really like the staff and I have made good friends here, like Cathy. Being here gives me something to do and I enjoy doing it,” smiles Rose.

Indeed, Rose has found a home at CRC, and CRC is better for it.

October 19, 2011 interview with Bruce Voogd

Please also visit www.40Oaks.com; @40Oaks on Twitter; 40 Oaks on FaceBook.

So, while we endeavour to provide a home that is safe, warm and welcoming to our tenants, a place where all feel welcome in the hub and a place of prayer in our worship space, we also grapple honestly and fervently with the character of our Christian presence – and pray that we may know something of Sam’s tears of joy in the midst of it all…

Click here to read more.

Or click here to read the entire Insight newsletter (May/June 2012, Volume 40, No 6, pp 6 & 7).

Please visit www.40Oaks.com; @40Oaks on Twitter; 40 Oaks on FaceBook.

A wise woman once gave me these words to live by: “Always leave your footprints in the sands of time”.

My name is Rene Adams. I am a single mother with 2 daughters, Shanice, 17 and Zenaida, who is 10 years old. I am a member of the Davenport Perth Community Church (United Church of Canada). My activism journey began at a young age when I questioned why I was not allowed to use a park in my South African neighbourhood. In high school, I participated on student council and the fight to bring Eva’s Place youth Shelter to North York in the 1980’s. I also worked to bring the Scarborough’s Second Base Youth Shelter to fruition and found my voice through working and volunteering at various organizations including the Stop Community Food Centre’s Speaker’s Bureau. As a founding member of the Bread and Bricks Social Justice Group in Davenport, I contributed to the development of the Stop’s Do the Math Campaign, which aims at educating the public on the real struggles faced by those living on the margins across Ontario. (www.dothemath.thestop.org)

I started my position as the Community Advocate for the Fairlawn Avenue Social Justice Partnership with the Toronto Christian Resource Centre (CRC) in February 2011, after deciding to take a giant leap by leaving the Ontario Disability Support Program in search of full-time employment.

Despite living with multiple hidden disabilities, I combine my experience of living on social assistance, public speaking, advocating for affordable housing with my education in Community advocacy, legal secretarial and business administration to educate others on the challenges faced by those who are forced to rely on various forms of social assistance. With little family support I could not have attempted this without the assistance of an affordable Housing subsidy and a subsidized childcare space through the City of Toronto.

Living on social assistance draws recipients into a cycle of dependence and creates divisions between marginalized groups that are hard to escape. Recipients are subjected to a substantial number of different rules and sometimes the intersection of those rules leaves them at a disadvantage instead of helping people move forward with their lives.

Ontario Disability Support Program recipients are subjected to an immediate 50% claw back of earnings when they attempt to work. In December of 2010, I participated in a training program for supportive housing workers at the Parkdale Activity & Recreation Centre. After paying the required deductions like all other workers, half of my pay was deducted from my Ontario Disability Support Program entitlement. These claw backs are treated as an “overpayment” therefore I was taxed twice for daring to work.

Child support is clawed back 100%. For my family this meant that my children would miss out on participating in organized sports or recreational activities, pizza day at school, social gatherings and birthday parties, because I was unable to provide the extra money for them to participate. It meant going several winters without winter boots and dealing with the health consequences of not having the proper clothing to get through winter. It also meant suffering the indignity of lining up at the food back in the hopes that we could get a 3 days supply of food that we were not allergic to and that whatever we got at the food bank would sustain us until we got money again.

Maytree Leader for Change, Diverse City Onboard candidate, Spokesperson for Campaign 2000 on child poverty, Spokesperson for the Poverty Free Ontario Campaign, Ontario Volunteer Award Recipient and Wellesley Institute 10 in 10 Urban Health Award for Community Leadership are among the accolades bestowed upon me. I am featured in the Skyworks Charitable Foundation’s Home Safe Toronto documentary on family homelessness, and sat on the board of the St. Clair West Affordable Housing Group for Monaco Place which received funding from the Fairlawn Avenue United Social Justice Team.

In my spare time I enjoy camping trips with the family and pursuing justice for the marginalized through my board position with Income Security Advocacy Centre.

I am grateful for the vision and investment of the Fairlawn Avenue United Church Social Justice Team in this partnership with the CRC. My employment in this position has given me a chance to leave my footprints in the sands of time by taking my skills and passion for social justice and turning them into dignified and meaningful employment.

Rene Adams, Community Advocate, CRC

Please also visit www.40Oaks.com; @40Oaks on Twitter; 40 Oaks on FaceBook.

“When the mother of a family I know started growing food for her family, it gave her something to do and it brought in extra food. Before that she was looking for a way to contribute more meaningfully to her home. This was causing tension in the family, and then she started gardening.”

But there are other benefits to growing vegetables in the community.

“It is economical and good for the environment. I’ve gotten to know lots of people – an opportunity to make friends from other cultures. I am able to teach others how to grow organically and show them where food comes from,” Hosne explains.

Before Hosne started growing vegetables, her only growing experience was with flowers in her native Bangladesh. “But they are for beauty, not eating,” she laughs.

Hosne arrived in Montreal from Bangladesh in 1994. In 1997 she settled in Regent Park in Toronto with her young son. Even though she has an MA in Psychology from the University of Dhaka, quality work was hard to come by and being a single mother made things even harder. Growing her own vegetables seemed like part of the solution.

But it took almost 8 years for a garden plot in the area to become available. “And, I only had to wait 1 year, 8 months for housing!” Hosne remarks. “I am thankful to Olivia Rojas, the Community Development Worker from Regent Park Community Health Center, who allocated me my garden plot.”

Trying to find more urban garden space is one of the projects of James Kuhns, Food Access Coordinator for the Christian Resource Centre. “With the redevelopment of Regent Park, we’re losing some of our urban garden plots. Growing your own food is so important to the community here. It gives them a chance to supplement their budget, but more importantly it allows them to grow organic, delicious food, often culturally specific to where they came from. In fact this year, one gardener actually grew rice right here in Regent Park.”

Hosne has led workshops on container gardening. “This is an innovative response to the loss of urban agricultural space,” remarks Kuhns. “We need to create opportunities for people to grow vegetables on their balconies and rooftops, in addition to working with the City to preserve on-the-ground areas where people can grow food.”

“My family back home can’t believe what I can grow on my 9 by 9 foot plot,” Hosne proudly shares. “They thought I just grew one or two things, not more than a dozen, like: water spinach, red spinach, jute, Swiss chard, cucumber, winter melon, scotch bonnet pepper, dark black hot pepper, Cayenne pepper, Egyptian onion, potato, sweet potato, garlic, beets, cilantro, and mint.”

Even though gardening is under threat in Regent Park, Hosne thinks she should be fine for another 10 years, since she lives in the last area slated for redevelopment. Others in the community will not be so lucky.

It’s too bad, because Hosne was able to produce more than enough vegetables for her and her son for 6 months. Her surplus allowed her to share with others. “This year I had so much water spinach that I gave much of it away. I have received help from many local community agencies like Yonge Street Mission and the Christian Resource Center. I am grateful to them. I have received from my community so now is a time for me to give back.”

“I love gardening for many reasons,” Hosne explains. “I am creating something. It gives me joy to be able to grow for myself and others. And the food I grow is so delicious and healthy.”

And she is good at it. This year she won “Best Innovative Garden” prize in a locally organized garden contest.

For more information on the CRC’s Community Garden Program, please contact James Kuhns at jamesk@tcrc.ca.

By Bruce Voogd

Please also visit www.40Oaks.com; @40Oaks on Twitter; 40 Oaks on FaceBook.

There were many highlights, some of them included:

• The unveiling of “Helping Hands” by Her Honour, Mrs. Ruth Ann Onley, wife of The Honourable David C. Onley, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. “Helping Hands” was created by sculptor Ralph Hicks.
• The debut of CRC’s video “Building Lives, Creating Community, Together”.
• Remarks by Greig Clark, Chair of the Board, and Debra Dineen, Executive Director, telling the  40 Oaks Story and thanking those that made it happen.
• The announcement by the RBC Foundation of a major gift of $150,000 to CRC and 40 Oaks.
• Inspiring performances by some of Canada’s finest: Jackie Richardson, Michael Burgess, and David Warrack.
• An evening of fellowship and friendship provided by all of the guests in attendance.

Thank you, again, to all of you for making this such a special night.

Click here to view pictures taken during the event.
Click here to hear Master of Ceremonies, Roger Ashby of CHUM FM “Roger, Darren and Marilyn”, account of the event the next day.

VANdemonium! 
At the event we shared with you our need to replace our volunteer operated delivery van that supports our vital programs!  Click here to view the video shown in support of that need.

The van is used daily for the following and more:

• Collecting fresh food from the Ontario Food Terminal for our Food Access Program,
• Collecting donations of food from various churches and community agencies/businesses for  our Community Meal Program, and,
• Transporting household items and clothing donations for our Housing Support Program.

You can still make an online donation at the event website and contribute to VANdemonium!

Tour of 40 Oaks
Our Opening Celebration did not allow us to give tours of 40 Oaks, yet many of you expressed an interest in seeing the building in operation and we look forward to seeing you at 40 Oaks again soon.

We have scheduled tours for Thursdays at 3 pm on May 17, 24, and 31. If you would like to come by and have a tour of 40 Oaks, please email Bruce Voogd.  If these dates and times don’t work for you, let Bruce know that too, and another time can be arranged.

Thank you on behalf of the Special Event Committee and the participants of 40 Oaks for your outstanding support!

Please visit www.40Oaks.com; @40Oaks on Twitter; 40 Oaks on FaceBook.

For immediate release – April 27, 2012

The Honourable David C. Onley, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, will bring official greetings and unveil Helping Hands, a bronze sculpture by Ralph Hicks (www.ralphhicks.ca) at 6:30 PM sharp on Monday April 30th at 40 Oak Street. Helping Hands celebrates and represents the many people involved in building 40 Oaks.  Helping Hands is the first piece of permanent street art in the revitalized Regent Park sitting at the head of newly reopened Regent Street and at the entrance to 40 Oaks.

This unveiling will kick off the Opening Celebration at 40 Oaks which will include musical performances by Jackie Richardson, Michael Burgess and David Warrack scheduled to be on stage at 7:50 PM.  The event will showcase and thank the many organizations and individuals who helped build the $12.5 million project of the CRC (Christian Resource Centre). A new major donor to the ongoing programming of the CRC will be announced on April 30, 2012.

40 Oaks is a spectacular five storey building built to LEED silver standards and is designed to be the heart of Regent Park with a main floor community hub, commercial kitchen and workspace for community agencies.  40 Oaks is home to over 100 new residents who now call 40 Oaks home.   For nearly 50 years, the CRC has been collaborating with the residents of Regent Park to help them develop solutions to their problems, so they can realize their potential and contribute to a better community.

40 Oaks Opening Celebration
Monday April 30, 2012    6:30pm – 9:00pm
40 Oaks Street, Toronto M5A 2C6 – east of Parliament between Dundas & Gerrard

Sculpture unveiling will be at 6:30 PM sharp.

Interview and photo opportunities can be prearranged or available on site.
Please contact Ann MacDiarmid 416-567-6112 (raptor.comm@rogers.com) for specific requests.

Please visit www.40Oaks.com; @40Oaks on Twitter; 40 Oaks on FaceBook.

Click here for .pdf version of this media release.

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CRC is also proud to announce that Cornerstone (Church in the City) will be relocating their Saturday Community Dinners to 40 Oaks starting April 28th. Meals are open to everyone and will be served from 5 to 7 p.m. every Saturday throughout the year.

For release April 16, 2012:
40 Oaks will celebrate and pay tribute to the many individuals and organizations who made 40 Oaks possible. The SOLD OUT cocktail fundraiser is designed to showcase the building and its contributors. The events will begin with the unveiling of Helping Hands, a bronze sculpture by Ralph Hicks (www.ralphhicks.ca) that celebrates and represents the many people involved in building 40 Oaks. It will be the first piece of permanent street art in the revitalized Regent Park sitting at the head of newly reopened Regent Street and at the entrance to 40 Oaks.

40 Oaks is a spectacular five storey LEED approved building designed to be the heart of Regent Park with a main floor community hub, commercial kitchen and workspace for community agencies. 40 Oaks is home to over 100 new occupants of the 87 affordable housing units. 40 Oaks is a project of the CRC (Christian Resource Centre). For nearly 50 years, the CRC has been collaborating with the residents of Regent Park to help them develop solutions to their problems, so they can realize their potential and contribute to a better community. Funding for the $22 million building came from three levels of government, corporations, churches and individuals and is ongoing.

The 40 Oaks Opening Celebration includes musical performances by Jackie Richardson, Michael Burgess and David Warrack at 7:50 with an audio visual presentation telling the 40 Oaks story and saluting its many donors.

Please mark your calendars and plan to attend:
40 Oaks Opening Celebration
Monday April 30, 2012
6:30pm – 9:00pm
40 Oaks Street, Toronto M5A 2C6 – east of Parliament between Dundas & Gerrard

Sculpture unveiling will be at 6:30 PM sharp.

For further information or specific photo opportunities please contact:
Ann MacDiarmid 416-567-6112
raptor.comm@rogers.com

Please visit:
www.40Oaks.com
@40Oaks on Twitter
40 Oaks on FaceBook

Recent articles in the Toronto Sun have expressed concerns about the revitalization of Regent Park. The success of this important project is at the core of our Mission, Building Lives, Creating Community, Together. Hence, it is important, for all our stakeholders, that we look into the concerns.

Here is our understanding of the concerns raised:

Concern #1: The Community will not truly be a mixed community. It will be dominated by the rich. There are three parts to this concern.
i) Number of Units: there is concern that there are not enough social housing units. The facts as we understand them are the following:
-there were 2083 rent geared to income (RGI) social housing units in the original Regent Park.
-the revitalization plan called for all 2083 of those units to be replaced and more if possible (1783 were to be built on the Regent Park footprint and an additional 300 or more constructed nearby).
–in addition the plan called for some 3000 market units to be built on the footprint.

As far as we know that plan is on track. Phase 1 which was recently completed included 520 market units and 405 social housing units onsite and 375 in nearby east downtown. Some 593 of these will be RGI.

ii) Social Housing Units and Market Units are not in the same building.
It was never intended that RGI and market units would be in the same building. We were happy to see that the buildings all look similar from the outside. Visitors to Regent Park are unable to tell which apartment building or townhouse is social housing and which is market. Getting the residents to meet and integrate outside of their buildings will be part of the CRC’s Mission and one of the key reasons we built the Community Hub at 40 Oaks in Regent Park.

iii) The rich will dominate the new Regent Park.
One of the unique things about this development is that it had not only a Business Plan, but also a Social Development Plan developed by the community and approved by City Hall before development could go ahead. The key focus of this Plan is to help create a community that promotes “social cohesion and social inclusion”. The CRC has adopted, as one of its key goals, to help the achievement of this. It is the focus of the “community living room” we are trying to create at 40 Oaks and drives much of our programming. By working with the other agencies and the residents of Regent Park we will all do our absolute best to help Regent Park become a shining example to the world of a mixed income community that works.

In Summary, we believe that the Regent Park Revitalization Plan is a good one. It was created in full consultation with the community. It is on track. The feedback we get from the community is that they are generally pleased with what is happening.

In addition, from what we have seen, the Daniels Corporation has been an excellent choice for this development. Their president, Mitch Cohen, attends many of our functions and those of others in the community. He walks the talk. We believe he understands the community concerns and has consistently taken positive action to help the Social Development part of the Plan succeed.

Concern #2: that some of the executives of Toronto Housing Corporation and Daniels Corporation purchased condominiums in the buildings.

That is not our affair to comment on and we do not have much information on this. What we do know is that in the early “dark days” when the economic meltdown was happening in 2009 and there were articles in the press saying that market buyers would never buy in Regent Park, we were pleased to hear that people who were creating the buildings were willing to buy into them personally.

As of April 2 2012 416 Community Support for Women Addictions and Mental Health Case Management program and some their administrative staff will be moving into their new offices in the 40 Oaks Community HUB.