Archives for February 2016

Our Outreach Centre at 140 Islington Ave. in the heart of South Etobicoke is getting a much needed MAKEOVER!

We are incredibly fortunate to have received funding from the Ministry of Community and Social Services and a generous donation from The Geoffrey H. Woods Foundation to create a brand new beautiful kitchen to better serve our community.

This generous support couldn’t have come sooner. Every year we serve over 9,200 individual meals to our clients. These meals are at the centre of all of our programs and for some of our clients the only secure source of food in their day. As the number of clients we serve grew, we knew we needed a kitchen renovation in order to meet the need. Luckily our call was answered!

Not to worry, our programs and services are still available!

Our outreach counsellors are working out of our temporary location at JobStart, 2930 Lakeshore Blvd. West, located conveniently across the street from our centre. We have relocated our programs to LAMP CHC and St. Margaret’s Church and our Girlz Space program is operating out of the Jean Augustine Centre for Young Women’s Empowerment. Click HERE for a full list of our programs and their locations.

We anticipate re-opening by the end of August. We are still available by phone at 416-252-7949 during business hours and our 24 hour crisis line is always available at 416-252-5829. If you have any questions, call us!

Be sure to check out our Facebook and Twitter pages for regular updates

facebook.com/WomensHabitat                                twitter.com/WomensHabitat

 Thank you for your support! We look forward to inviting you back to our beautiful new centre at the end of the summer!

Here are some of the questions we’ve received from our community. If your question isn’t answered here, email us at habitat@womens-habitat.ca and we will get back to you!

Who is Women’s Habitat?

Women’s Habitat is a social service agency, providing supports for women and their children who are survivors of violence.

 I thought you were a shelter? What do you do at your outreach centre?

We opened the outreach centre in 2006 as a way to provide supportive services to women in the community. Services include drop-in programming, parenting support, housing assistance, support for women in transition, programming for teen girls and one-on-one counselling.

Didn’t you just renovate?

We renovated our emergency shelter which was in desperate need of repair. Thanks to a group of generous donors that renovation was completed and we re-opened our shelter in June 2015.

Why renovate?

We hired an independent consultant to complete a needs assessment of our programs and services. The results from the assessment were clear: food security is a major obstacle for our outreach clients and the meals provided through our outreach programming reach far beyond sustenance. They are an opportunity to build and strengthen our client communities and provide a critical platform for peer support and engagement. Our agency serves on average 9,200 meals a year at our outreach centre and that number is steadily growing. We offer hot meals at every program and host on average 15-20 clients per program session.

Some of our clients have disclosed to us the meals offered are often the only secure source of food in their day. At the end of each session all leftover food is packed and offered to the participants. Many of our younger clients take it home to share with their families.

We are seeing an increase in the number of clients accessing our programs. We need this renovation to meet the increased need.

What’s wrong with the current kitchen you have?

Our current kitchen is too small and does not have the proper equipment needed to feed our clients. We need to make some major upgrades including a new sanitizer, increased food prep space, a commercial Grade A exhaust and fire suppression system, electrical and plumbing upgrades.

Do you have all the funding you need to renovate?

We have the funding to renovate the kitchen and we are currently looking to secure additional funds for some other much needed upgrades including upgrading the client washroom and storage facilities. We would like to complete all the renovations while we are closed and the kitchen renovation work is in progress. If you are interested in supporting the second phase of our renovation or want to help us spread the word, contract our Resource Manager Lina at lalmanzan@womens-habitat.ca.

Are you going to keep offering counselling and programs while you’re closed?

YES! We are temporarily located across the street from our centre at JobStart (2930 Lakeshore Blvd W.) and we are running our programs out of St. Margaret’s Church, LAMP CHC and the Jean Augustine Centre for Women’s Empowerment. Click HERE for full program and location.

How can I contact my counsellor/support worker?

Our phone line is still in operation! Call us during business hours at 416-252-7949. If you left a message on your counsellor’s voicemail they are checking them frequently. If you need immediate support after hours you can always call our 24 hour crisis line at 416-252-5829.

Are you still accepting donations?

In-kind donations will not be accepted until after we re-open. Monetary donations, gift cards and TTC tokens are always accepted! You can make a donation on this site or contact our Resource Manager Lina at lalmanzan@womens-habitat.ca

Are you still looking for volunteers?

Yes! We are always looking for volunteers, in fact we have a volunteer info session coming up on April 30th! Contact Ursula at ukrubnik@womens-habitat.ca for more details.