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Tag: Mayors Dinner

Gathering with Neighbours at the 36th Mayors’ Dinner

Kara Peters Unrau June 1, 2025

On April 5th, we celebrated the 36th Mayors’ Dinner in Marshall Hall at Bingemans. With over 860 guests, the room was at full capacity. This year our theme was Knowing our Neighbours. We gathered to celebrate the many ways people share themselves with our community, and to hear about building community and celebrating diversity and inclusion. We heard inspiring stories from Fauzia Mazhar and John Lougheed. We also updated the community on the construction progress and highlighted The Working Centre’s Making Home project at 97 Victoria.

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Building Community with Our Neighbours

Joe Mancini June 1, 2025

Remarks by Joe Mancini at the 36th Mayors’ Dinner: There are so many people who are here tonight who contribute to The Working Centre. It is overwhelming to think about the deep generosity that has helped sustain TWC’s village of community supports.  

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Creating Stronger Connections Across Our Community

Fauzia Mazhar June 1, 2025

It is an honour to stand before you tonight to reflect on the power of community and the meaningful connections we can build. This gathering is a testament to our shared commitment to creating a welcoming, inclusive, and vibrant Waterloo Region, where everyone feels they belong.

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Spiritual Care in Small Things

John Lougheed June 1, 2025

One of my mentors in ministry was the late Father Bernie Hayes, of the local Roman Catholic community. I remember him saying in a wedding homily: “You know I’ve never been married…” and amidst the gales of laughter, with his great sense of timing, Bernie added: “But, I hear it is hard work…and worth the effort!” This remarkable gathering tonight reminds us all that building community is hard – and at times, fun! – work together, and is always worth the effort.

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Making Home Reaches Its Goal

The Working Centre June 1, 2025

At the Mayors’ Dinner, Working Centre Board Chair, Carol Taylor, announced: Tonight we are celebrating the way that this community has supported Making Home – an invitation to build housing and a new home for St. John’s Kitchen – creating a place of hospitality that welcomes our neighbours who are living without housing.

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Knowing Our Neighbour

Stephanie Mancini March 1, 2025

This year’s Mayors’ Dinner theme, Knowing Our Neighbour, is about the positive social connections that engender dialogue and reciprocity. We all know the importance of neighbours. Can we become neighbourly people in the widest sense, can we strive to find positive ways to build community? The Dinner this year comes at a time when there is a discouragement for the divides that we see around us. Neighbourliness, the ability of people and groups to talk to each other, help each other out and learn from each other is a pathway to building community.

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Determined Hope at the 35th Annual Mayors’ Dinner

Kara Peters Unrau June 1, 2024

On April 6th, we celebrated the 35th Mayors’ Dinner in Marshall Hall at Bingemans. With over 830 guests, the room was bubbling with energy. The subtle lights and a full house of people in conversation enhanced the warmth of the evening. It is always heartening to see so many longtime supporters of The Mayors’ Dinner who each year commit to participating in this community building fundraising event.

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Acting Into Justice Provokes New Ways of Thinking

Joe Mancini June 1, 2024

Pope Francis calls the beatitudes the path to joy and true happiness for all humanity. What is the work of shelter – it is walking with those who are left out, it is the call to be merciful, it is mourning those who die, it is seeking right action for those dispossessed. During these last five years, The Working Centre has walked with thousands dealing with homelessness, many of whom are caught in the concurrent cycle of mental health and addictions.

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Voices of Hope, Courage, and Determination

The Working Centre June 1, 2024

As part of the 35th Mayors’ Dinner, workers in the field of employment counselling, settlement support, shelter and homelessness supports, and workers involved in climate change and environmental projects were invited to share their experiences, stories and perspectives.

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The Integrated Circle of Care is a fluid and collaborative approach followed by workers from different agencies weaving through St. John’s Kitchen. Within this approach, staff members from each agency are aware of their specific personal roles. However, the high level of collaboration between workers means that people can approach any worker, without knowing their agency association or specific role, and still receive support – either that worker will support the person directly, or they will introduce the person to another worker who can support the person more appropriately.

This approach makes relationships more natural and support more accessible. Workers from different agencies are easily approachable, meaning that people build relationships with multiple workers. Having relationships with different workers is important to a person’s support – it makes support from a trusted source easy to find, and means that people have a choice of worker to approach in any given situation.

In order to maintain a circle of care around a person, workers from different agencies ask for consent from the person for information to be shared between workers. Continuous communication between workers helps to ensure that people do not fall into gaps between services, and also that services are not duplicated.

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