HELP MAGGIES&HOLY TRINITY RECOVER FROM MAJOR FIRE
***Please note: All funds donated will be evenly split between Maggie's Toronto and Holy Trinity to cover the costs of fire recovery and restoration. While we are in the process of assessing the full extent of the structural damage, air quality, electrical systems and residual damage, we're looking at total damages, including the costs of restoration, recovery and replacing program supplies, of at least $500,000.***
Late in the evening on Friday, September 8th a fire was set outside of our community space near Yonge and Dundas Square. We're deeply thankful to the passerby who called emergency services and Toronto Fire for their swift response. As a heritage site built in the mid-1800's, the fire resulted in significant damage to our building, program supplies and furniture. We were informed Saturday morning that had Fire Services arrived even 15 minutes later, we would've lost the entire building to this incident and are relieved that no one was injured.
As a result of Friday's fire, our building has experienced significant structural damage, our phone lines are down, and we will have to close our space for the foreseeable future. What furniture and program supplies were not lost to fire damage have been compromised by smoke, ash and soot in the aftermath. Despite a long rebuilding process ahead, Holy Trinity is working hard to offer comprehensive supports to community in the area including food, clothing, harm reduction supplies and much more.
At Maggie's, we are committed to taking the necessary steps to re-open and rebuild a beautiful, functional, dedicated space for sex workers in our community to co-create and access low-barrier, judgment-free services and supports, but we need your help to rebuild post-fire and get back on our feet.
Our organizations are as resilient as our communities are, and we'd deeply appreciate your support as we rebuild.
Pictured: Photos of fire-damage post-cleaning on Sunday, September 10th.
Holy Trinity Is a Safe Haven In The Heart of The City: Rapid Emergency Response Rooted In Community
COVID impacted the way in which Holy Trinity could support the homeless, underhoused and marginalized. We quickly shifted the focus from an indoor drop-in, which was temporarily halted due to the pandemic, to remaining open to the hundreds who came to our doors looking for support and food.
- Unity Kitchen - We gathered a network of faith and community groups to prepare and serve 200 meals a day, in addition to warm clothing, hygiene equipment, and survival supplies. In essence, The Open Hours Program and People Presence transitioned into what became known as Unity Kitchen, a dedicated team of volunteers who served hundreds of meals to those in need. Eventually, a large encampment grew around our church with individuals searching for safety and shelter. We worked with other community leaders to ensure that all who came to Holy Trinity found the support they needed. The first no-barrier vaccine site took place at Holy Trinity.
- Trinity CommUNITY Hub - After a summer of regrouping, we are reopening our doors to the most vulnerable. Our Trinity CommUNITY Hub will provide food/harm reduction, clothing and other supplies, along with supportive programming, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
- The Toronto Homeless Memorial remembers those who have died as a result of homelessness in Toronto. This project is maintained by Holy Trinity and a committee that supports its activities. A memorial service is held on the second Tuesday of each month at 12:00 PM outside the south door of Holy Trinity. Each month, the names of those who have died most recently on the streets of Toronto are said out loud, added to the memorial and those who wish to remember their friends or loved ones are invited to share their words with the crowd.
Staff and volunteers at Holy Trinity go above and beyond to provide care to the vulnerable in the downtown core. They also seek to advocate with and for the issues that face the marginalized.
Maggie's Toronto: Our March 2023 Expansion & May 2023 Renovation-
Our incredible staff team was thrilled to move into our new space in March of 2023, closing down for 5 weeks of renovations and redecorating through May and into June 2023 to relaunch a brand new, functional, beautiful space for our community to access drop-in programming, harm reduction supplies, comprehensive workshops, outreach and educational materials as well as local advocacy work around sx workers rights.
Pictured: objectively cute interior design choices.
Pictured: Maggie's Lounge space/community room and computers.
Pictured: Maggie's Toronto meets with the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of Slavery to consult on sx work criminalization and the importance of decrim.
For the first time, we'd secured a space that made community feel at home, that accommodated our quickly-growing team of staff and programming. Because sx workers face so much discrimination and stigma across communities, many of our community members are barred from accessing other vital social supports: shelters, drop-ins, food banks and more, simply because of the work they do. This space was a refuge for community, but beyond this it marked a major expansion in our programming/services and proved to so many of us that Maggie's and our mission to improve the lives of sx workers in our communities could become something bigger than many of us had anticipated. For the first time we'd launched:
- Case Management Programming - Offering long-term, wrap around supports to sex workers with legal/medical accompaniments, support securing ID, assistance navigating a wide range of institutions, major life decisions and struggles that come from the criminalization of our communities and widespread stigma against sx workers.
- Drop In & Community Programming for Sx Working Parents to build community, address isolation and related discrimination against sx worker parents in our communities. Our drop in programming included healthy meals, access to harm reduction supplies, comprehensive workshops covering a wide range of issues on physical/mental/sexual health, parenting issues, etc.
- Enhanced Street Outreach Programming - Providing harm reduction supplies to sx workers in Toronto's downtown core and downtown east, responding to the multitude of crises impacting our communities: the housing and shelter crisis, the opioid crisis, growing income inequality and more.
- Targeted HIV/Harm Reduction Programming for LGBTQ2S+ communities - with a specific focus on outreach/engagement with male-identified sx workers looking for community, supports and harm reduction supplies related to HIV/STBBI's (Sexually Transmitted, Blood Borne Infections)
- Targeted HIV/Harm Reduction & Community Building Programming for QT/BIPOC (Queer and Trans, Black and Indigenous People of Colour) communities - engaging Toronto's' ballroom community and expanding our outreach efforts to address the needs + concerns of Black sx workers and other racialized communities.
Pictured: Our Wednesday evening drop in programming in the Maggie's Lounge.
Pictured: Our street outreach team hosts a monthly Kit Making Group in our 3rd floor common area.
Pictured: Our Program Manager team at the Annual AIDS Candlelight Vigil in Barbara Hall Park.
We're proud to be part of such an incredible community and see the work for sx worker justice to be central to so many struggles for racial justice, labour rights, migrant rights, disability justice and LGBTQ liberation. The community who access our space come from so many walks of life and are impacted by a worsening housing crisis, an overcrowded and discriminatory shelter system, an opioid crisis and increasingly harsh laws/policing practices that target our communities. Spaces like Maggie's are critical for local sx workers seeking refuge, support and community in the midst of this. Partnering with Holy Trinity to offer centralized supports right in the heart of the city is key to reaching our community.
In the immediate aftermath of the fire and through September 24th, the staff team at Maggie's will be off. Collectively, we are heartbroken at the loss of the space, but we know that rebuilding and coming back into our home in this space is so important precisely because of the time, energy and care frontline staff at Maggie's have put into their work, the community members we serve and the organization more broadly.
Learn more about Maggie's Toronto at http://www.maggiesto.org
Please direct any questions or feedback about this fundraiser to Ellie Ade Kur (Executive Director, Maggie's Toronto) at [email redacted] and find our full statement on the fire and subsequent damage here.
Organizer
Ellie Ade Kur
Organizer
Toronto, ON
Maggies Toronto Sex Workers Action Project
Beneficiary