St Stephen's Community House

About

St. Stephen’s Community House (SSCH) is a non-profit multi-service social agency serving more than 27,000 people across Toronto each year.

Story

St. Stephen’s Community House (SSCH) is a non-profit multi-service social agency serving more than 27,000 people across Toronto each year.

Mission

St. Stephen's works with individuals and communities in the City of Toronto to identify, prevent and eliminate social and economic inequality by creating and providing a range of effective and innovative programs and services.

Our programs work with the most vulnerable people in our city. We help youth at-risk, people who are homeless, newcomers to Canada, low-income families, isolated seniors, people and organizations in conflict,the unemployed and people at risk of,or living with HIV/AIDS .

Products

We offer the following programs and services:
(Please visit our http://www.sschto.ca for more information on each program)

• Child Care •
Our four licensed child care centres provide a stimulating and nurturing environment for 317 children between the ages of 3 months to 10 years, many of whom come from single parent and low-income families. Each centre offers a program of social, emotional and cognitive development in addition to nutritious meals and snacks prepared on site. In 2013, we expanded our child care to accommodate children in full-day kindergarten.

• Conflict Resolution & Training •
Conflict Resolution & Training provides free community mediation and professional workshops in both mediation and conflict management. Organizations and businesses can also take advantage of our affordable mediation, facilitation and consulting services. Each year we help approximately 1,500 people, including 600 participants of the community mediation service. In 2013, we opened an Etobicoke clinic, furthering our commitment to help people resolve conflicts Toronto

• Employment & Training Centre •
The Employment & Training Centre helps young people, adults and new Canadians to prepare for and find employment. We serve approximately 6,000 people through our job board, workshops and other training programs, including 2,276 students.

• Housing & Homeless Services •
Our Corner Drop-in saves the lives of people caught in the cycle of street life, addiction and poverty. Open six days a week, the Corner welcomes more than 250 people daily for nutritious hot meals, showers, access to telephones, computers and a mail registry. We also offer assistance finding affordable housing, addictions and crisis counselling, primary health care, mental health case management and a financial trustee program. Each year we serve nearly 200,000 meals, secure housing for nearly 400 people and help approximately 575 clients enter an addiction treatment program. We also provide permanent supportive housing for 13 previously homeless men who struggle with mental illness, and hold a weekly drop-in for socially isolated women.

• Language Training & Newcomer Services •
We assist thousands of newcomers with their transition to life in Canada every year by providing English classes, counselling, settlement supports, referral services and employment preparation. We offer 15 English classes in 5 different locations in downtown west and North York.

• Senior Services •
The Senior Activities Centre is a friendly place for seniors to access community services and socialize with their peers. We provide care for more than 70 frail seniors and deliver healthy, group programming in Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Portuguese and English to nearly 1,350 active, multi-lingual seniors.

• Wellness Promotion •
With a focus on women's health, HIV/AIDS education and perinatal supports, the Wellness Promotion Program promotes good health and illness prevention through culturally appropriate health education strategies in Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese. We reach approximately 8,000 people every year. In 2013-2014, we established a Hassle-Free clinic to provide free medical and counselling services involving sexual health.

• Youth Services •
Recognized as a best practice model for youth spaces by the city, our Youth Arcade is a safe and positive meeting place for more than 1,500 neighbourhood youth, ages 13-21, many of whom are at-risk. They socialize, attend workshops, develop leadership and conflict resolution skills, and participate in alternative sports and recreation activities like our new music club. We also offer REPLAY, an alternative high support school program, community service for young offenders, and our annual youth career mentoring conference. In 2013, we developed multi-disciplinary partnerships around trauma faced by young women resulting in recognition from Health Canada, Status of Women Canada, and the Toronto Community Foundation’s Vital Ideas