Social Justice Advocacy
Our Mission Statement guides all of the activities and outreach that we do both within the church and in our community around us.
As part of this mission we attempt to fulfill this point:
- Care and advocate for the lonely and marginalized
Through the work of our Social Justice Advocacy efforts, we attempt to raise awareness of the issues that face our community.
Homelessness in South Etobicoke
One of our current projects is looking at housing in the neighbourhood.
To this end, Sandra and Helen gave a presentation to Eculinks churches in the area at All Saints Kingsway. Here’s the link to that presentation: https://youtube.com/live/3BGROvSUBFk
Refugee Crisis Response
Helen Gill and Sandra Fawcett would like to bring to your attention the urgent need for co-ordinated action on the crisis in City shelter space.
Many have seen the media coverage concerning refugees and asylum seekers sleeping on the street outside the shelter intake office, through smoke, heat waves and monsoon-like rain because there is no room in shelters. This problem exists in addition to the ongoing lack of shelter for homeless people in the GTA and beyond.
While in a joint statement issued Wednesday morning, July 19, 2023, Mayor Chow and Premier Ford said that Ontario and Toronto are each providing $6.67 million as a one-time funding top up to the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit to get more people into permanent housing and quickly free up spaces in the shelter system and the federal government announced $97 million would be given to Toronto, these are just stopgap measures. An additional $60 million is needed to address the needs of this year’s refugees. A comprehensive plan to address growing shelter needs of both refugees and homeless people in our province is required.
You can act by:
- Speaking Up to your federal, provincial and municipal representatives to say you expect better coordinated care of refugees coming to Canada, including housing.
- Standing Up by offering financial support to churches providing interim support, through the GoFund Me page, initiated by Diana Chan McNulty. More details on the refugee situation are posted to this GoFund Me page and links are provided to media coverage for even more information:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/water-and-food-for-stranded-refugees?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer - Standing Up by offering space to refugees in your home through Romero House, which runs a matching program.
- Standing Up by offering the specific things needed. See https://www.revivaltimetabernacle.org/