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Keele Site:

1652 Keele Street

Toronto, ON M6M 3W3

Tel: 416-652-2273

Fax: 416-652-8992

Davenport Site:

1884 Davenport Road, Unit #1

Toronto, ON M6N 4Y2

Tel: 416-654-0299

Fax: 416-654-0522

Eglinton Site:

2562 Eglinton Avenue West, Suite 101

Toronto, ON M6M 1T4

Tel: 416-651-2273

Fax: 416-658-8992

[email protected]

www.communityarc.ca

Communi ty

Act ion

Resource

Cent re

2009-2010

Annual Report

S ta f f :

Alicia Walker

Ana Leon

Belinda Goncalves

Charlyn Ellis

Genevieve Komanyor

George Martin

Leticia Boahen

Mahbooba Zewari

Marilia Lana

Marion Newrick

Martha Granados

Peggy Liendo

Peter Thai Tran

Rocio Arguelles

Sherean Wilson

Ted O

Triacia Clarke

Yaquelin Hechavarria Soto

Yasmin Mohamed

Placement/ Summer Students:

Alicia Thomas

Gustavo Escobar

Jozel Cabral

Karina Portillo

Latoya Gray

Rodel Dickson

Boa rd o f D i r ec to r s :

CHAIRPERSON: Luanne Rayvals

VICE-CHAIR: Diane Walter

TREASURER: Jane Zener

SECRETARY: LaToya Williamson

DIRECTORS: Amina Sharif Hassan

Dora Ey

Dulce Gaspar

Gillian Dennis

Our Team

Community Action Resource Centre 2009-10 Annual Report

Con t r ac ted Se r v i ces :

Pia Di Giovanni, ThinkABC – Bookkeeping

Peter Jellard – Technical Support

Vo l un tee r s :

Ada Varda

Aden Abduk Qudir

Adisa Codner

Afrha Hassan

Amina Nur

Amina Shariff

Andrea Rondinelli

Angela De Silva

Anis Gul Safi

Arta Bilaca

Asha Jama

Ayesha Ashrafi

Bev Snow

Brittany Lima

Carolina Mateo Gonzalez

Cleidina Lima

Denise Codner

Dennis Hemmings Dhamarys Santana

Dora Ey

Elimar Bertolino

Elmouchir Mustafa

Erelys Diaz Madruga

Esmeralda Silva

Ester Zacarias

Faiza Jama

Fauziah Daoud

Fiona Ruddock

Fawzia Ahmed

Gisely Signoretti

Hamdi Nur

Herma Lewis

Iolanda Cravidi

Jaimie Anne White

Jonathan Ellis

Karen Palmer

Keisha McFarlane

Khadijo Hilowle

Laila Malliam

Laurel John

Lenny Hodge

Leyla M Suudi

Leyla Osman Mohamud

Lorena Freire

Lucimar Dias Carneiro

Maria Ross

Maria Tereza M. De Queiroz

Marjorie Reid

Maryan Asir

Matheus Rondinelli

Maureen Arlain

Miroslava Mitic

Nasra Ahmed

Nasrin Iqbali

Natacia Fontenelle

Nur Siraad Huseen

Pamela Sousa

Paul Nadin

Peter Mutchler

Rosa Vieira

Saidie Butler

Sado Ali Adan

Saeed Abshir

Sahna Aboillahi

Sahra Siyaad

Saida Jama

Selma De Abreu

William L Mackenzie

The following Community

Dining program volunteers

are supported in partner-

ship with Davenport Perth

Neighbouhood Centre:

Arlene Brown

Charles Murdoch

Daphne Gunn

David Dumais

Doris Gasper

Grace Walsh

Iris Richardson

Laura Lozada

Millicent Bowen

Nelson Membreno

Paul Gikhour

Peter Gikhour

Regina Wilson

Rosa Lamanna

Roslyn Thompson

Taheed Khan

Timothy Heslip

Tony Lamanna

Triacia Jones

Valeri Kazbekov

Youth Mentors:

Ianna

Javel

Kaylee

Mohammad

Odessa

Sankara

PHOTO FRONT COVER: Finding red wrigglers in the Community Garden

A special thank you to all our A special thank you to all our A special thank you to all our A special thank you to all our volunteers volunteers volunteers volunteers ---- Board, program , Board, program , Board, program , Board, program , admin and fundraising admin and fundraising admin and fundraising admin and fundraising ---- we we we we couldn’t do it without you !!couldn’t do it without you !!couldn’t do it without you !!couldn’t do it without you !!

2009-10 Annual Report Community Action Resource Centre

Our mission statement includes the words “… to build the capacity of our communities“ During the past

year we have worked with a variety of community partners and community residents to do just that, in the

areas of community programs, settlement services for newcomers, community development activities,

and programs for children, some of which are highlighted in the pages of this annual report.

New developments during the past year included:

▪ An increase in funding from Citizenship & Immigration Canada, enabling us to add new staff and

ncrease some positions from part-time to full-time, as well as to open a new location on Eglinton

Avenue West, focusing entirely on the needs of newcomers

▪ A greater focus on the needs of the Spanish speaking community in collaboration with York Hispanic

Centre, through increased funding from the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship & Immigration

▪ The City of Toronto allocated some new admin space in 1652 Keele Street, that eased our space con-

straints in our program room, and as well increased our funding to support parents in our community

▪ Developmental work undertaken in early 2010 resulted in capital funding from The Ontario Trillium

Foundation to renovate and open up the lobby of 1652 Keele Street that will benefit the entire com-

munity when it becomes available for cultural gatherings and meetings, etc. Also part of this project,

the coming year will see us engaging further with the community at large in order to utilize the lobby space in new ways

▪ New community development work included working with local residents to identify their issues and

strengths, and support them working towards establishing a first residents’ association. As well, we

continued our focus on anti-poverty initiatives and anticipate a busy year ahead as we increase our

capacity to work with our community in identifying some of the root causes of poverty and work

towards positive change

▪ We also worked with a variety of community partners on new service development, including a com-

munity kitchen collective lead by York Community Services, and supporting the development of Free

Geek Toronto which is highlighted later in this report

The year just passed was therefore one of substantial growth for our organization, building on previous

organizational development work that resulted in new community partners, new staff, new space, and

new programs. The year ahead will see us undertake further planning work at the Board level to take us

into the next phase of our development.

This year, we must say farewell to Dulce Gaspar who is

leaving our Board of Directors after many years in a

variety of roles. Dulce has provided calm and stable

leadership in many areas of our development, serving

on both Boards of our two amalgamating organiza-

tions, through the exploration and merger process,

and as first Chairperson of Community Action Re-

source Centre. She was an active member of our

Personnel Committee, multiple Hiring Committees,

Nominations Committee and many more ! We thank

Dulce for her consideration contributions that played

such a strong role in getting us to this stage of our

development. We look forward to continuing to

work together on other initiatives in our community.

Luanne Rayvals, Chairperson

Marion Newrick, Executive Director

Report from the Chairperson and Executive Director

Some of our amazing staff team

Programs & Services


S e r v i c e s f o r I n d i v i d u a l sS e r v i c e s f o r I n d i v i d u a l sS e r v i c e s f o r I n d i v i d u a l sS e r v i c e s f o r I n d i v i d u a l s

▪ Information and referral by

telephone or drop-in

▪ Form filling, letter-writing,

advocacy, follow-up, worker liaison

▪ Informal supportive counseling

▪ Crisis counseling

▪ Interpretation and translation

▪ Voice Mail, mail and messages

▪ Income Tax Clinics

C o m m u n i t y / G r o u p S e r v i c e s C o m m u n i t y / G r o u p S e r v i c e s C o m m u n i t y / G r o u p S e r v i c e s C o m m u n i t y / G r o u p S e r v i c e s

▪ Community Dining

▪ Child Care Registry & Information

▪ Children’s After School Program

▪ Summer Day Camp

▪ Community Access Program (CAP) -

internet access

▪ Housing Connections - Access Centre

for subsidized housing

▪ Group workshops

▪ Community Development and

Community Capacity Building

S e r v i c e s f o r N e w c o m e r sS e r v i c e s f o r N e w c o m e r sS e r v i c e s f o r N e w c o m e r sS e r v i c e s f o r N e w c o m e r s

▪ Settlement services & support

▪ Information, referral & orientation

▪ Interpretation and translation

▪ English conversation group

▪ Spanish-speaking women’s

group

▪ Group workshops on topics of

interest to newcomers

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT:

Child Care Registry

The Chi ld Care Regi s t ry ass i s ts parents to

l ocate su i table care fo r thei r ch i ld ren.

The program al so i ncluded i n format ion,

re fe r ra l , support and resources fo r ca re

prov iders and seekers , i nc luding a bi -

month l y newsle tte r “K ids ‘N Care”. The

Regi s t ry p rov ided re fe r ra l s to o ther fo rms

of ch i ld care i ncluding l icensed ch i ld

care cent res and l i censed home chi ld

care opt ions .

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT:

Satellite to Ontario Early Years - Davenport Riding

As a sate l l i te s i te of the Davenport Ontar io

Ear l y Years (OEYC) program, we support fami -

l ie s and caregivers o f ch i ld ren 0-6 years o f age,

p rov iding i n format ion, re fe r ra l , o r i entat ion,

gu idance and t rans lat ion regard ing programs

and se rv ices of fe red at Davenport OEYC, as

wel l as p rov iding workshops on top ics of i n te r -

es t to those ca r i ng fo r young ch i ld ren.

Outreach at the Davenport Ontario Early Years screening day

A workshop for parents on childcare options


PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT: Community Dining Program

The Community Dining Program is a partnership program with Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre which began in

December 1996 to address food access in the community. It provides hot nutritious meals three times a week as well

as providing information and referral about other programs and services in the community. The average attendance

per meal is approximately 100 and includes individuals and families from different linguistic and ethnic cultures, back-

grounds and economic circumstances.

In addition to the provision of hot meals, the program provides the opportunity and support for people to find meaning-

ful ways to be involved in their community as volunteers - the program has an active volunteer base of over 20 commu-

nity residents. From time to time the program also provides activities, forums and workshops to the participants on is-

sues that impact directly on their lives.

Cook Patsy and her amazing team of volunteers

served over 6,000 hot meals in the winter season

2009-2010

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT: Cross Cultural Women & Girls’ Space

With huge support from Evergreen, we had another

amazing year at the community garden, and we’re

looking forward to next year when we will take on the role

of supporting the community to self-manage the garden.

Several cultural and fun events were held throughout the

year, including a forum on International Women’s Day at

which MPP Laura Albanese spoke to the women, and we

all enjoyed an amazing program of local talent. ABOVE: MPP Laura Albanese speaks at our International Women’s

Day event

BELOW: Dub-poet Lillian Allen and evolving “eco-femanist” word artist

Blakka Ellis donate their considerable talents to a women’s group

BELOW LEFT: Pot luck at the community garden

Community Development

During the past year, we focused our efforts on

supporting local residents to identify and address their

needs, on increasing our capacity around anti-poverty

initiatives, and on service development for emerging

groups.

Working with other community partners, local residents

were successfully supported in organizing their fi rst

community BBQ, recognizing their own community and

cross-cultural strengths, and in initiating a residents’

steering committee to work towards establishing their

fi rst residents’ association.

Several workshops and training sessions were held with

local community members aroundissues of anti-

poverty, and in collaboration with Social Planning To-

ronto we participated in meetings with MPP Laura

Albanese and in a well-attended community forum by

the Colour of Poverty Campaign.


Participating in meeting with MPP Laura Albanese co-ordinated by

Social Planning Toronto, to discuss progress around anti-poverty initiatives

A visit from MP Alan Tonks, and other scenes from the residents’

community BBQ

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT: A new initiative: “Helping The Needy Get Nerdy”

Beginning in early 2010 we acted as trustee and provided developmental support for a new program: CyberEquality,

now registered as Free Geek Toronto. Winning the coveted prize from the Toronto Enterprise Fund and with a small

equipment grant from Ontario Trillium Foundation, this entirely participant-lead initiative has the following goals:

▪ To reuse or recycle used computer equipment that might otherwise become hazardous waste

▪ To make computer technology more accessible to those who lack financial means or technical knowledge

▪ To provide paid work opportunity for persons receiving social assistance and other low income

To learn more about the Free Geek movement , contact Free Geek Toronto directly at:

WEB: www.freegeektoronto.org EMAIL: [email protected] PHONE: 416.572.3737

Children What a great summer our kids had !! Day tr ips included Ontar io Science Centre, Pucks

Farm, Woodbine Centre movie theatre, Centre I s land, and others. The campers enjoyed

workshops f rom Toronto Publ ic Health on Healthy Food Choices, getting to make thei r

own mini pizzas and of course eat them ! ! Some amazing t imes were spent with The

Love Music Ini tiative under the fun leadership of Benjamin De Graaf … learning about

the or igins of rap music and how to recognize its many posi t ive messages. The kids also

got to work in small groups developing and then performing their own spoken word .

And of course there were endless days of sports, swimming, arts and crafts, dance, and

just plain old hanging out with f r iends. Through the Toronto Distr ict School Board’s

Focus on Youth ini t iative, we great ly benefi ted from 5 extra senior students for our

summer camp program this year, as wel l as again having ful l use of Brookhaven’s

wonderful gymnasium, playground, and a program room.


The after school program met Mayor

David Mi l ler at his “Meet Your Mayor

event” at 1652 Keele Street, doing an

amazing job informing:

“What I Want My Mayor to do”


Newcomers

Our settlement services program provides culturally and linguistically appropriate services to newcomers

in various languages - Cantonese, Dari, English, Farsi, Hindi, Italian, Mandarin, Pashto, Somali, Spanish,

Urdu, and Vietnamese. A very busy year saw continued increase in our one on one client services, as

well as a wider variety of group programs, including:

▪ The coordination and delivery of over 110 monthly workshops and group activities for newcomer

women to provide information relating to immigration, citizenship, finance, education, health and

wellness, employment, housing, legal, and taxation, as well as a weekly English conversation group

▪ Throughout the year we collaborated with community partners on various programs including an Ex-

pressive Arts Therapy program with Access Alliance, a Job Fair with 16 community partners, a Viet-

namese Wellness & Services Fair with 12 settlement organizations, visits from the Mobile Health Clinic

for Newcomer Women with Immigrant Women’s Health Centre, supporting a Families First workshop

series co-ordinated by SIWA-Somali Immigrant Women Association, supporting development of a

community kitchen with York Community Services, and Ladies Take a Break women’s group with Dav-

enport-Perth Neighbourhood Centre. Two group trips for newcomers were organized to the Ontario

Science Centre and the Art Gallery of Ontario, and planning work undertaken to develop a commu-

nity kitchen for the Spanish speaking women’s group in collaboration with York Hispanic Centre

▪ We are one of the 25 Partnership Council Mem-

bers of the York South-Weston Local Immigration

Partnership, lead by Social Planning Toronto, and

actively participate on each of the Work Groups

(Access to Services/Social Inclusion; Community Engagement; Labour Market), and a member of

the West Downtown Settlement Services Partner-

ship as a member of its Bloor-Junction Council

▪ Over 240 job seekers, 10 employers and 6 com-

munity organizations participated in the Job Fair

that we coordinated in November at a local li-

brary

▪ In partnership with 12 Vietnamese-speaking

community organizations, we coordinated a Vietnamese Wellness & Services Fair. Over 210 partici-

pants and a dozen service organizations joined the event and the Mobile Health Clinic was deployed

at the site to facilitate various health tests at no charge for newcomer women, regardless of their im-

migration status

Increased funding from the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship & Immigration enabled expanded Spanish lan-

guage services, in partnership with York Hispanic Centre, and CIC increased some positions from part-time to full-time. By the Fall, our Keele office was bursting at the seams, and fortunately Citizenship & Immigra-

tion Canada approved additional funding that enabled us to open a new office dedicated to settlement

services that relieved the pressure at Keele and enabled us to expand services to meet the needs of the

many newcomers in our community. We look forward to another active year ahead.

Statement of Operations and Net Assets

For the Year Ended December 31, 2009

REVENUE

Government funding

Davenport Ontario Early Years Centre funding

United Way Toronto

Fundraising and donations

Foundations and other

Bingo and Nevada

User Fees

Membership and other

EXPENSES

Salaries and benefits

Office and general

Professional fees and subcontracting

Program supplies

Industry Canada (CAP) flow through grants

Building Occupancy

Voice Link

Staff and volunteer development

Fundraising

Travel

Other

EXCESS OF REVENUE OVER EXPENSES FOR THE YEAR

Net assets, beginning of year

NET ASSETS, END OF YEAR

2008

$465,489

21,200

18,733

44,631

23,575

6,817

2,022

582,467

420,588

46,721

36,055

23,234

9,423

3,859

7,158

3,230

2,420

2,739

4,038

559,465

23,002

26,388

$ 49,390


A complete copy of the audited financial statements prepared by Cowperthwaite Mehta Chartered Accountants is available from the CARC office

2009

$629,456

21,200

17,825

25,499

21,662

6,650

519

722,811

525,095

58,353

37,098

27,358

19,090

14,305

6,969

5,704

4,620

3,173

1,627

703,392

19,419

49,390

$ 68,809

Financial Statements

Funders, Donors and Partners

Funde r s

▪ City of Toronto

▪ Citizenship & Immigration Canada

▪ Human Resources Skills Development

Canada (HRSDC)

▪ Industry Canada

▪ Ontario Early Years Centre funding -

Davenport Riding

▪ Ontario Ministry of Citizenship &

Immigration - Newcomer

Settlement Program

▪ Ontario Ministry of Culture

▪ Ontario Trillium Foundation (2010)

▪ United Way Toronto

Dono r s /Con t r i bu to r s

▪ CP24 CHUM Christmas Wish

▪ The Bargains Group - Project Water

▪ Windfall Clothing

▪ Individual donors

Pa r t ne r s / P r og ram Suppo r t

▪ Access Alliance

▪ City of Toronto Shelter, Support & Hous-

ing Administration (SSHA)

▪ Davenport Perth Neighbourhood &

Health Centre

▪ Davenport Perth Community Ministry

▪ Eritrean Canadian Community Centre

▪ Evergreen

▪ Housing Connections

▪ Immigrant Women’s Health Centre

mobile health unit

▪ Institute of Chartered Accountants of

Ontario (ICAO)

▪ Social Planning Toronto and

1652 Keele Street Community Alliance

▪ The Stop Community Food Centre

▪ Toronto Community Housing

▪ Toronto Public Health

▪ Toronto District School Board

- Brookhaven Public School

▪ York Community Services

We a re Member s o f :

▪ OCASI -

Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants

▪ Social Planning Toronto

▪ TNC - Toronto Neighbourhood Centres

CHARITABLE REGISTRATION NO: 11897 6117 RR0001

Mission Statement:

“ Our organization works to build the

capacity of our communities by mobilizing

resources and providing supportive social

services, for the empowerment of

individuals and groups. ”

Founda t i ons

▪ Artisan Charitable Foundation

▪ CHUM Charitable Foundation

▪ George Cedric Metcalf Foundation

▪ Mazon Canada - A Jewish

Response to Hunger

Together we create a sense of community, a

healthy and positive space in which all feel free

and comfortable to speak their minds in an

environment that facilitates mutual support.

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