Open Letter to Our Place Members, Participants, Families and Supporters

On behalf of my colleagues on the Board of Directors, thank you for your support of Our Place over the years. I thought you might be interested in an update on how things are going!

Our Executive Director, David Collins, and his staff continue to make a lot of improvements and he has been working closely with the Board of Directors to implement our long-term strategic plan. We have done much to improve our programming and build partnerships. For example, this year we offered our participants a community kitchen in collaboration with The Stop Food Access Centre, mental health discussion groups with Pharmacology students from the University of Toronto and shared outings with Accommodation Information Services.

In December, Catholic Charities provided us with our full funding request and gave us a two-year funding commitment. With this expression of trust from our core funder, we can continue our focus on outreach and plans to grow and help even more people who are living with mental health issues.

In order to enhance our program we have successfully applied to a number of charitable foundations and received support from individual donors such as yourself. Total revenue for the Centre grew by 10% in 2014 and participation continues to be strong. We are now hosting an average of 40 participant visits per day and we have set a target to reach 60 participant visits per day by next year.

We also have a number of additional program improvement proposals that we would like to implement. We need to reach a target of $40,000 in net additional funding/donations this year. So far we have been doing well working towards this goal and are halfway there after only the first three months of 2014.

I'm sure you all have your special memories of Our Place. I find so much personal inspiration from the work being done here and by the stories and strength of the Centre's participants.

Best Regards,

Chris Holling

President of the Board of Directors