Published March 2025
The Region of Waterloo National Housing Day 2024 Planning Committee acknowledged The Working Centre Family with this year’s Christine Wilson Outstanding Housing Community Worker Award! Pat Fisher, Program Analyst – Region of Waterloo Housing Services submitted a nomination which read:
“This nomination is for the Working Centre Family, in recognition of their ongoing work in our community to support people who are experiencing homelessness. Rather than a nomination for one or two people, I would like to recognize that the Working Centre works as a collective, their efforts built on relationships, seeing the strengths of people, listening, learning, reflecting and applying those lessons in the way that they believe best supports the people they collectively support.
“The Working Centre Family has been a consistent voice, naming truths and proposing solutions to an evolving set of needs and challenges. They were the first to issue a warning in 2019 using both data and stories to name and describe the surge in both the number of people experiencing homelessness and the complexity of their situations. Time and again since then they have leaned in and offered solutions that are grounded in the lived experiences of the people they walk with each day. When the Housing and Homelessness system has faced challenges, The Working Centre Family have consistently said, let us try. They have brought in new partners, organized needed trainings for direct service staff, innovated with new types of services and consistently found ways to support people that no one else was able to support. They have proposed options, offered solutions, negotiated, stretched limited resources – always with a focus on creating spaces and supports that are grounded in the lived experiences, the challenges and the needs of people who are stuck in experiences of homelessness.
“The Working Centre Family was originally built on the foundation of Street Outreach and St. John’s Kitchen. They have expanded hours, expanded services, brought in new partners, worked to integrate traditional housing system partners. They leveraged their skilled and experienced SOS team to fill gaps in the housing system. They created drop in spaces, created temporary shelters including finding locations when no one else could find them. In COVID they consistently leaned in and provided the backbone support needed to keep people safe throughout the waves of COVID in our community. The Working Centre Family innovated by creating transitional housing for a group of people who had been stuck outside for years in a location no one else could find at University Ave, they saved lives by supporting people in Motels while recovering from or awaiting hospital medical procedures. They stepped up to demonstrate how couples and people with pets can be supported in emergency shelter. They stepped forward and said let us try when the Region wanted to pilot an outdoor shelter. They created programs that provided supportive housing to people with complex needs. They provide innovative supports for newcomers and re-purposed some of their property to provide housing for vulnerable newcomer women. Today you see their ongoing spirit of making the most of limited investments as they re-envision St. John’s Kitchen and build long term supportive housing in a model where the lived experience of people experiencing homelessness is front and centre.
“Today, I wish to nominate the Working Centre Family, not because of one thing that one or two people have done, but rather because of the ongoing effort of a collection of people coming together again and again and saying – let us try to find new ways to house those who have none. We as a community are a MUCH better place because of them, people experiencing homelessness are better cared for because of them, political leaders are more informed because of them, the circle of supports in our community is wider and stronger because of a collection of people who have approached every challenge with an attitude of, let us try. We are a better community because of you.”
