Community Events

Community events at Fred Victor are important because they build relationships, honour lives and special occasions, and they include everyone as a single community. Celebrations are a great way to build community.

Toronto employees Local 416 plant "Mary’s Garden" at Fred Victor Women's Hostel

It starts something like this: Krystyna Dixon, a worker at Fred Victor Women’s Hostel phones her Mom, Denise Rehel, a staffperson with the Toronto Civic Employees Union Local 416, and says, hey Mom, how about bringing your Union to the Hostel for a day and doing some gardening? So, her Mom says, ok, sounds good, let’s do it!

Then all the pieces start to fall into place. Paul Le Page, City gardener, buys $200 worth of plants, mostly annuals. He buys plants often so he knows what he’s doing and gets a good price. The Union hasn’t planted at a Hostel before but they’ve done lots of other environmental good deeds, delivering big brown paper recycling bags to the public, attending environment days with city councillors… And they do it on their own time, too. They take a vacation day, and then show up and work as volunteers. Now that’s heart!

So Thursday, July 14 comes and the sun is shining so brightly you actually want to get sprayed with the garden hose! But, City gardener Paul isn’t slowing down: “I love beautifying the city. That’s what it’s about for me. Look up and down this street. There’s no green space anywhere. So any chance I get — I’ll take a day off work to do it if I have to — I plant flowers, shrubs, trees. It just makes the city so much better.”

The volunteers start with the front of the Hostel and then move to the back. There’s a small sheltered garden in the back and this is the day it will be named, “Mary’s Garden”. Mary’s Garden honours Mary Sheffield, the pragmatic and visionary founder of the fledgling Fred Victor Mission back in 1886. Local 416 not only donates their time that day, they also present the Hostel with a plaque that reads: Mary’s Garden.

Most days, Kuriat Yusuf works alongside Krystyna at the Women’s Hostel. She talks about how important the little garden is to the women who stay at the Hostel. “We’ve built a tradition around the garden. Each woman who is staying at the hostel can adopt a plant. It’s theirs to take care of as long as they’re with us. It seems to help the women to do this.”

Alice was staying at the hostel. She says, “Thank God I came to the right place at the right time.” Gail who was staying at the hostel and then found permanent housing says, “The staff were wonderful and it felt sad leaving.” Shiney says, “I found peace of mind here at this shelter because staff know how to help you direct your life.”

Certificates of recognition were presented to Hostel staff members and a big barbecue that served almost 100 people made it a splendid occasion for everyone present. Thank you to Toronto Civic Employees Union Local 416 (see their photos on the link here) for being such wonderful community-spirited gardeners.  And thank you to all Fred Victor Women’s Hostel staff and residents who helped make it happen. Mary Sheffield would be well pleased! 

Annual General Meeting
June 16, 2011

The newly-redeveloped site at 145 Queen Street, wowed everyone.  Fred Victor tenants and program participants, staff, funders, board members and visitors of all kinds were totally impressed with the rebuilding.  And it was ready for the annual general meeting!

Bernie Granka, Fred Victor’s Director of Operations and his staff worked hard to get the building ready. “We were into the building just days before the AGM. There were plenty of details we needed to attend to, but staff from across all departments helped out a lot and the work got finished. We’re really glad we could make the building warm, welcoming, clean and ready for the AGM.”

During the business portion of the meeting, Board Chair Pam Bryant noted initiatives of the past year, in particular new systems to ensure service quality and good governance. Executive Director Mark Aston talked about progress made in the program areas, in particular Fred Victor’s innovation in working with people who have severe mental health and addiction issues. He thanked the City of Toronto for so concretely expressing their confidence in Fred Victor’s ability to redevelop the site.

Following the business meeting, staff and Fred Victor clients took the floor. A video created by Fred Victor’s Photography group about the impact of TTC fare hikes on low-income people was shown. It is part of the Fair Fare campaign. Two program participants, Mona Lisa and Brenda, spoke warmly about their experiences at Fred Victor.

Friends Catering provided a great feast of finger foods while one of our tenants, Tom Bays, played guitar and sang.

It was Brenda’s words which summed up the hope for the future that the redesigned building signals. She said, “Together, we’ll create new beginnings for whoever walks through these new doors.” May it always be so. 

Fred Victor is a community.  That is a strong claim.  Because, if you are a community you attend to the members of your community.  You focus on relationships, and give value to them, as well as the delivery of programs and services that meet members’ needs.

People who have experienced homelessness and poverty say that food and shelter were necessary, but in the end, it was a human relationship that changed their life.

When herbs and vegetables  from our community garden have been gathered and soup has been made, Fred Victor has a wonderful Harvest Festival to celebrate.  Everyone who participates in the garden group, the drop-in program, the art and photography groups help to create the event.  That’s community.

It’s community in action when tenants in Fred Victor Housing help water plants in the building, shop for a wheelchair-bound neighbour in the winter, and make meals together.

When someone in Housing dies at Fred Victor, we go to their funeral, and if there is no funeral, staff work with friends and tenants of the deceased to create a memorial service.  That’s community.

Here are photos from, the fall Harvest Festival.