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*SHARE REQUEST* We are looking for school snacks! Our Food Services Team and After-School Children’s Program team provides over 20 lunches and after-school snacks to children daily. Christie is currently home to 35 young people, who are provided school snacks as part of their lunches, during after-school programs, and in the evening before bed. We currently have a need for healthy, kid-friendly and individually packaged school snacks (must be nut-free). If you can support us with school snacks (or know of an organization that can), please get in touch. . . . #refugeeswelcome #childrensnutrition #healthysnacks #refugeechildren #sheltersintoronto

An empty room (a rare sight!) at Christie. A family of two recently moved out. They had lived in this room at Christie for over one year. It’s hard to believe the last four families who moved out of Christie had all lived at our Centre for over one year. This underscore how much rent subsidies like the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit (COHB) are life changing. Thanks to this rent supplement program, relaunched in the Fall of 2024 and co-funded by the federal and provincial governments, the subsidy offers low-income families living in shelters with an allowance to bring down the cost of a private market rental. By helping families move out of shelters and into the community, COHB simultaneously frees up beds in Toronto’s overcrowded emergency shelter system. Families at Christie (and families in shelters across Toronto) rely on COHB to help them get out of the shelter system. But due to the inflated cost of housing in places like Toronto and how much of an allowance is often needed to help fill the gap for families to be able to afford a private market rent unit, the COHB program will soon end (March 2025) as funding rapidly dries up and if no further funding is announced. This is the current state of accessing housing for families in Toronto’s overcrowded shelter system. It underscores how desperately a new vision for housing is needed; one which sees housing as a human right. . . . #refugeeshelter #refugeehouse #refugeeswelcome #refugeesintoronto #cohb #affordablehousing #affordablehousingforall #affordablehousingcrisis

✨A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Christie Refugee Welcome Centre ✨ Almost 60 residents came together for our end-of-year Christmas Dinner in late December. Dinner included chicken and turkey, potatoes, stuffing, jambalaya, green beans, gravy and apple pie. A resident choir sang Christmas carols (we are home to so many talented voices!) and Christie’s youngest performed the nativity story, complete with costumes. Our former clinic doctor, Dr. Jim, played Santa and handed out gifts to all of the families. To close the evening, we danced and all learned a bit of a South African two-step from one of our residents. Wishing everyone a blessed and restful holiday season!

Christmas cookies and hot chocolate for Christie kids yesterday 💕💕💕💕💕💕 Thank you, Food Services Team! . . . #seasonsgreetings #christmas2024 #refugeeswelcome #refugeeshelter #christmasgiving #refugeesintoronto #decoratedsugarcookies

Most of us can remember the scenes from summer 2023. Dozens - sometimes up to 100- African asylum seekers sleeping outside in downtown Toronto night after night, after having been denied access to the City’s emergency shelter system. This was the result of a decision that came in November 2022, when the City of Toronto decided to stop allowing refugee claimants access to its base shelter beds, making the decision public in May 2023, when it began redirecting refugees to federal services instead. Last week, the Ombudsman released a report investigating these events. The report found that the City’s decision was inconsistent with City policies; it lacked accountability including proper documentation of who approved the decision and why; it led to harmful impacts and unhelpful referrals for refugees and; it was a decision based on systemic discrimination, specifically anti-Black racism, as most of the refugee claimants affected were of African descent and Black. The report made 14 recommendations to help strengthen fairness and transparency of the City’s shelter system. See bio for the full report and its recommendations. The City Manager’s Office continues to state that he does not accept the report and will not direct the City to implement the 14 recommendations. Photo credit: Rwandan Canadian Health Centre

The season of giving and being together is upon us. Christie Staff Christmas party ✨ DIY wreaths by our youngest residents (Halloween never dies!) ✨ a Christmas gathering for Christie’s former clients ✨ a donation of knitted winter hats from Nepal from @tibetanpaperhandicraft ✨ a very special gift from a young person who dropped by Christie to donate her saved allowance. Christmas is coming and we are just getting started! . . . #refugeeswelcome #refugeeshelter #holidaygiving #christmas2024 #refugeesintoronto #christmasiscoming

Last week, we had the honour of welcoming Linda Tripp back to Christie! Linda started World Vision Canada’s Refugee Program and established Christie Refugee Welcome Centre in Spring of 1989. There is so much history and so many stories here, over 35 years. We asked Linda a memory of Christie that has forever stayed with her: “I remember there was a woman from Africa, she had several children. We were sitting in the kitchen and talking and she kept grabbing my hand and she kept kissing my hand and I didn’t want her to. But she had to express herself. And it was just so stark … she was thanking me and I had no idea what it had cost her to leave everything and be here.” . . . #refugeestories #history #refugeehouse #receptioncentre #refugeeswelcome #35years

Last week, on International Children’s Day, we celebrated the birthday of one of the Centre’s young residents who turned a pivotal 13! Last week was also National Housing Day in Canada. As we reflect on these two symbolic days, consider that: 🚸 As of September 2024, nearly 1500 children were staying in the City’s shelter system; 🚸 Two-thirds of these children were ten years of age or younger. 130 of these children were under a year old; 🚸 More than 1400 children in Toronto are currently waiting for shelter space, living with their families in hotel rooms scattered across the city - paid for by City Hall; 🚸 The number of children living in shelters today is triple the levels seen in 2016; and 🚸 More than 70% of children staying in Toronto’s regular family shelters are part of refugee families. [stats from October 2024 Toronto Star article] Stats like these are important for understanding the housing and shelter crisis in Toronto but unfortunately they have also been used to scapegoat refugees for the failures of government in dealing with a national housing crisis. Remember that refugees did not cause the housing crisis. Rather, bad policy and government inaction to appropriately fund housing did. . . . #housingcrisis #refugeefamilies #refugeesintoronto #refugeeshelter #refugeeswelcome

Before and AFTER - birthday celebrations for our most beautiful young people are our absolute favourite! Pizza is eaten, cake is shared, candles are blown out and wishes are made. The birthday child gets to decide the activities, snacks, movie, music! Our wish is that every refugee child forever feels empowered, respected, uplifted and loved. . . . #refugeechildren #refugeeshelter #refugeehouse #childrensprogramming #refugeechild