What's New

February is Family Month

February means Family Day (Feb. 20)  and we’re celebrating families all month long by recognizing our work with newcomer communities through a project called Healthy Families Healthy Communities.
The project,  funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, is helping women share their struggles and issues after leaving  their home countries where they have lived with war and violence. Through workshops and peer counselling,  participants learn and understand what makes a family “healthy.”
Get the full story and watch videos of project participants here.

New Report Card looks at provincial poverty

Media attention has turned once again to the theme of poverty with the release of the provincial version of the 2011 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty.
"If the Ontario government wants to stay on track and reduce child poverty, it has to see poverty reduction as a priority, a key consideration in public sector decision making," says Ontario Campaign 2000 in the report launched at a Queen's Park media conference.
The event was organized by Alizeh Hussain, co-ordinator of Ontario Campaign 2000, and staff from Family Service Toronto's Social Reform unit.
The Star published highlights of the report in an online story posted Sunday headlined Poverty fight must go on despite deficit, activists say. Read blog.

Child-care activists request the re-profiling of the Universal Child Care Benefit Fund

Through an open letter sent Feb. 6, to the Prime Minister, Finance Minister and President of Treasury Board, the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (CCAAC) and Campaign 2000 call on the Harper government to redirect the $2.5 billion annual UCCB to fund ECEC programs and the National Child Benefit for low and modest income families. The letter says that Canadians simply cannot afford to let a substantial public expenditure like the UCCB continue with no documented efficacy.  Read the full open letter in English and French.  

FST Programs and Services

• Counselling Services
• Connecting Families - Parenting Program
• David Kelley Services - counselling for LGBTQ community and people living with HIV/AIDS
• Families in Transition – help for separating, divorcing and remarrying families
• Seniors and Caregivers Support Services
• Pat's Place - Abused Older Person's Program
• Violence Against Women – help for women in abusive relationships
• Next Steps/Partner Abuse Response Program
• Campaign 2000 – provincial and national anti-poverty coalitions
• Options - a program for people labeled with intellectual disabilities
• Passport Initiative - community participation supports for young adults who have a developmental disability
• Community and Neighbourhood Development Projects
• Growing Up Healthy Downtown - GUHD - a program for families with young children
• Social Reform