A taste of community living at its best
United Way GenNext members visit Community Living Toronto for their weekly Wednesday night supper club.
On September 10, twenty GenNexters visited Community Living Toronto’s location at 30 Birch Ave. to take part in their Wednesday Night Supper Club.
Community Living Toronto is a 60-year-old United Way member agency that is a recognized leader in offering a full range of personalized supports and services to people with an intellectual disability and their families.
The Wednesday night supper club dinners have been taking place every week for the past 13 years or so, and were started by a volunteer, Tom Dawson. Every Wednesday, people with intellectual disabilities can come to the Clubhouse at 30 Birch Ave. to have dinner together—the meal is open to anyone whether they live in an assisted living home or on their own.
And for $5 it certainly is a bargain! The GenNexters were shown around the facility—they visited the kitchen, the Clubhouse, and ate dinner outside on the patio. They were fortunate to have the CEO of Community Living Toronto, Bruce Rivers, speak about the work that is done by this organization at its over 70 program locations across the city.
Mr. Rivers talked about how United Way Toronto funding helps provide services to those in need through core funding to the organization. United Way funding also supports ConnectAbility, Community Living Toronto’s virtual community focused on lifelong learning and support for children, youth and adults with intellectual disabilities, their families, caregivers and support networks. Users are able to connect, support each other, share, research and advocate via easy-to-use web tools.
Supper Club volunteer Peter, spoke about how he got involved with Community Living Toronto—walking along the street near Yonge and St. Clair, he saw a poster that showed the large percentage of people living below the poverty line who are intellectually disabled. He immediately wanted to do something to help. Noting the Community Living Toronto logo on the poster he called and asked how he could make a difference and was asked to come to the Birch Ave. location on a Wednesday to help with dinner. That was two and a half years ago and he’s been back every week since then.
The GenNexters all enjoyed the experience of sharing a meal with the folks at Community Living Toronto, and they appreciated the opportunity to learn about the services offered and how United Way funding helps make a difference in people’s lives every day.
GenNext is a United Way initiative developed to encourage Torontonians in their 20s and 30s to become involved in charitable activities and to support the goals of United Way.
For more information about GenNext and upcoming events, visit: unitedwaytoronto.com/gennext.
A taste of community living at its best was a Feature in our quarterly newsletter, Community Matters: Fall 2008.
