Yonge Street Mission takes positive steps to address chronic poverty in Toronto

BY PAUL JUNOR

Yonge Street Mission (YSM) has played an active role in the history of Toronto since it was founded in 1896 as a local Christian development agency by John Coolidge Davis. YSM strongly believes that each and every one of the 500,000 people experiencing poverty in Toronto has immense value, and all its programs and services are focused on working to respond to immediate needs and help people move from surviving to thriving.

Furthermore, at YSM they believe if we combine our collective resources and wisdom, together we can reach our goal of ending chronic poverty in a generation. Through its wraparound support and services geared to individuals, families and communities that are impacted by poverty-related challenges, it offers viable and practical solutions that are focused on pulling them out of poverty.

Some of the troubling data that YSM provides on its website include:

• Toronto is Canada’s largest and richest city and consistently ranks in the top three of more than 4,000 cities 69 live in globally
• Toronto is also the child poverty capital of Canada with one in four children living in poverty
• 500,000 Toronto residents struggle with poverty, of them, 37% are female single parents and 46% are recent immigrants
• Nearly one million workers hold two or more jobs, and over two million people are stuck in temporary employment
• On average, a low-income family has less than $10.04 a day for basic needs such as food, after rent.

YSM has developed a holistic model that focused on adults experiencing chronic poverty, such as:

• Street involved youth
• Families in need
• Community
• Community development

YSM uses a holistic RISE model of care (Respond, Invite, Support, Engage) which is customized to the needs of these unique populations. There are three guiding principles that are integral to this holistic model. These include the following:

• Unconditional support for each individual or family
• Commitment to walk the entire journey with each person from surviving to thriving, no matter how long or how varied the path
• Evaluating our effectiveness with comprehensive tools to measure individual and community transformation

YSM has identified three key systemic barriers and works with community, government and varied stakeholders. The key barriers are:

• Nurturing community ownership & engagement
• Informing policy
• Ensuring city-wide best practice
• Continuing listening and relevant response

It has been over 40 years that Yonge Street Mission (YSM) has been active in Toronto through its many poverty-reduction strategies. Over the years, it has played a leading role in the City of Toronto in many ways. I interviewed Angie Peters, CEO and President of YSM. Since she took over YSM in 2013 she has been active in developing many strategic and significant partnerships over the years. Through her visionary leadership, she has steered YSM on a strategic path that is focused on eliminating chronic poverty in Toronto within one generation.

She told me of her firsthand experiences growing up in poverty and how her family was able to rise above it through the power of community. She mentioned that it is important to understand how individuals fall into poverty in the first place. There are often systemic and entrenched factors that lead to generational poverty that makes it difficult to break the cycle of poverty.

Angie has shared her inspirational and motivational story in her recently released book titled, “Just ACT: We Are the Solution to Poverty.” On Thursday May 30^th, 2024, a book launch was held at St. Paul’s Bloor Street Anglican Church in Toronto in which there was a gathering of faith leaders, and a panel of committed and dedicated members of the community who shared their personal stories and experiences of what it is like to go through poverty. It was moderated by Medlinda Estabrooks, host and executive producer of “See Hear Love.” The goal of the gathering was to foster a society where equity, fairness and justice are priorities.

The promotional material notes that Angie’s new book reminds readers of the choice we can all make as we live in a world that includes poverty in all its forms. We can choose to do nothing, or we can choose to do something-anything-to help our fellow neighbours overcome their experience of poverty.