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Find out what we’ve been up to at Christie and follow us on Instagram at @CRWCTO

Thank you Palmerston Public School for hosting their inaugural Culture Fest yesterday! We had SO much fun and our brave Annie*, age 8, from Christie even performed a traditional Persian song with her recorder in front of everyone. We are so proud of her.
Schools are vital in the successful settlement of young people navigating a new country, language, culture - sometimes, all at the same time. New classrooms, new friends, new neighbourhoods, new routines; we are so proud (and in awe) of each and every Christie child doing an amazing job embracing the new, full tilt and full steam ahead.
*names changed
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#refugeechildren #ontarioschools #everychildinschool
2 weeks ago









February is Black History Month, a complicated concept to celebrate at Christie Refugee Welcome Centre where although a majority of Christie residents identify as Black and come from Black-majority countries, their recent arrival to Canada is often their first encounter with the Black North American experience. What is the history of Black Canadians and what does it mean to be Black in Canada?
This month, we invited families (and staff!) to consider how their Black (Caribbean, African or South American) traditions has and will continue to contribute to the over 400 years of Black presence on these lands.
This February, we ate and improved our meal plans, offered culturally-appropriate hygiene products to all new Black families arriving to the Centre, participated in meaningful workshops and our Children’s Program also spent time reflecting on the contributions of Black communities and social movements.
#blackhistorymonth2025
2 weeks ago

*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.
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#refugeeswelcome #childrensnutrition #healthysnacks #refugeechildren #sheltersintoronto
2 months ago

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.
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#refugeeshelter #refugeehouse #refugeeswelcome #refugeesintoronto #cohb #affordablehousing #affordablehousingforall #affordablehousingcrisis
2 months ago





✨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!
2 months ago


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

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
3 months ago





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!
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#refugeeswelcome #refugeeshelter #holidaygiving #christmas2024 #refugeesintoronto #christmasiscoming
3 months ago


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.”
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#refugeestories #history #refugeehouse #receptioncentre #refugeeswelcome #35years
3 months ago