Community Knowledge Centre - Toronto Community Foundation

About this organization

Mission

St Stephen's Community House (SSCH) envisions an inclusive community in which harmony, empowerment and opportunity create social and economic justice and a better quality of life for all.

SSCH works with individuals and communities in downtown west Toronto to identify, prevent and alleviate social and economic problems by creating and providing a range of effective and innovative programs.

Our motto is: Creating Opportunities. Strengthening Communities.

History of Organization

St. Stephen's Community House was started by the Anglican Diocese in 1962. During the early years, St. Stephen's was a Christian-based settlement house providing community services, primarily to youth. In 1964, the programs at the House were diversified with English classes being offered to new immigrants, along with counselling, job placement services, and skills training workshops for youth. The House continued to operate in this capacity for ten years.

On May 24, 1974, St. Stephen's Community House became an independent, incorporated not-for-profit charitable organization, and a United Way member agency. Since that time, St. Stephen's has been a pioneer in new service delivery models and programs - childcare services, seniors citizens services, homeless services, community mediation services, HIV/AIDS and wellness services, and more. In the past decade we added supportive housing for people living with mental health challenges.

Over the last 48 years, St. Stephen's Community House has continued to meet the growing need for diverse and effective programs in Kensington Market and the surrounding neighbourhoods across west Toronto. These programs are vital in building healthy engaged communities. Our programs seek to foster personal growth and self-confidence, and create a sense of community.

Accolades and Accomplishments

St. Stephen's Community House has offered unique and ground-breaking programs for almost 50 years.

• Our Conflict Resolutions Services is one of the first in Canada to offer community mediation for neighbourhood disputes. 
• We created Kensington Youth Theatres Ensemble at St. Stephen's (KYTES), one of the earliest expressive art programs for homeless youth.  
• We were the first group in Canada to translate HIV/AIDS education in Chinese, Portuguese and Italian languages.  
• Our Portuguese young women's conference in the early '90's identified issues of young newcomer women who faced cultural barriers to success.  This resulted in VENUS a young women's collective that has worked for 18 years to document the voice of young women.  In the last decade, VENUS has published two books on healthy sexuality by youth, for youth that has been published in Canada, USA and six European countries in five languages.  The "Little Black Book for Girlz" has also won awards from the New York City Library and the American Library Association.
• Today we serve 28,000 people of all ages annually within the City of Toronto.

Programs

> Youth After School Program

• Childcare - we operate four licensed childcare centres for 200 children daily.  Two of centres are in local schools. 
• Employment Services- our employment centres sees 11,000 youth and adults across the city for counselling, job placement, skills training, job fairs and job search.  We have documented more than 2,000 successful job placements this year.
• Newcomer Services - we provide 17 English Classes daily at six locations and provide settlement supports to 1,700 newcomers annually.  We provided early learning programming for 73 children whose parents attend classes.
• Homeless and Housing Services - we offer a day centre for people who are homeless and living in poverty with over 190,000 visits. We linked many people to workers to help with housing, addiction, mental health and health problems.  We directly helped 441 people to get housing.  We also provide 13 units of permanent supportive housing for men with mental health challenges.
• Seniors Services - we provide over 3,000 days of care for frail seniors and seniors with Alzheimer's.  We also provide weekly education, activities and groups in Cantonese, Mandarin, Portuguese and Korean languages for over 1,000 seniors. 
• Youth Services - we provide programming for 1,500 youth annually including recreation for neighbourhood youth, and specialty programming for youth in conflict with the law and youth outside of the school system.
• Wellness Services - over 500 pregnant newcomer women make over 10,000 visits to our weekly perinatal groups for education and support.  Over 6,000 newcomers recieved education and outreach on HIV/AIDS in English, Portuguese and Chinese languages.
• Conflict Resolution Services - staff and volunteer mediators helped over 200 individuals and families to deal with a neighbouhood dispute and we trained over 1,400 people to be mediators or handle conflicts more effectively.

Youth After School Program

The After School Program brings together youth aged 12-19 years old to participate in structured and unstructured activities and friendships. Youth participate in a balance of discussions/education, recreation, and healthy eating every day from 4pm-6pm at our drop-in centre and gymnasium in Kensington Market.

Being a highly youth-led program, participants choose the activities, with a focus on cooperation, inclusion, self-expression and participation. Youth engage in structured projects over a year, such as the creation of books, films, conferences or events. In recent years the youth have created books that have been professionally published and sold around the world. They have also held local conferences to deal with neighbourhood conflicts or safety issues.

Our after school program brings together youth needing positive influences, including youth in conflict with the law and youth who are suspended or not enrolled in school. 80% of the youth in the program live in nearby public housing projects and represent newcomer communities, which is why all activities are offered at no fee. Twice a year our program goes on leadership wilderness camping trips with professional guides. Other leadership opportunities include paid and volunteer roles in delivering activities and membership in our Youth Advisory Council.

Funding and Program Partners

St. Stephen’s Youth Services receives project support from the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion, the City of Toronto Parks Forestry and Recreation Division, and our main partner since 1975 – United Way Toronto. Recent generous charitable donors in 2009 include Tippett Foundation and the Counselling Foundation of Canada.

Program Impact

This program literally changes a young person's life and sets them on a path to graduate high school, stay safe and away from negative choices, and be a leader in helping other youth in the community. This year 900 youth participated in enhanced programming that benefited them directly and helped others indirectly by creating a youth guide to going into grade nine for younger peers, holding a community event to end bullying between children attending three local schools, and organizing a young women's mentoring conference to meet professional women mentors.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

"After-school programs make a critical difference in safety and skill-building.

• The hours between 3 and 6 p.m. are a high-risk period for unsupervised children. During these hours, children are more likely to engage in gang-related or delinquent behaviour, or become victims of crime." (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

Participant Vignette

Chi Nguyen was a typical teen who became a leader and champion. From a newcomer family Chi participated frequently in the after-school programs and made lots of friendships. She quickly joined the young women's group and excelled in "zine" making. She became one of the nine youth authors of the "Little Black Book for Girlz" which is now published worldwide in five languages. After graduating high school and going to university, Chi was recognized for educating young women about their sexual health and received the Governor General's Award for outstanding contributions to the quality of life for women in Canada. Now graduated from university, Chi has returned as a member of the Board of Directors to ensure the cycle continues. Chi says "Being a young woman, trying to figure out who you are - what you wanted to become - making sense of yourself. None of this was possible for me without St. Stephen's. Through the Little Black Book and VENUS, I learned that, in fact, I did have a voice - and that I had important things to say. The program gave us space to learn and transition through those awkward years."