The Rotary Club of Toronto: Centennial Award of $100,000 to “Rotary Health and Wellness Centre”,  A Program initiative of The Good Neigbours’ Club

The Rotary Club of Toronto has enabled The Good Neighbours’ Club to take a giant step forward in delivering services to older homeless and marginalized men in our city. The new Rotary Health and Wellness Centre, a clinic for front-line social and medical services, has been created by the granting of The Rotary Club of Toronto Centennial Award.

The new centre will include a conference room for group work and classes, a counseling room for social work, a medical room, a dental room, and a recovery room for members who need a couple hours of sleep. It will provide the dignity of privacy to older men whose needs were being underserved in hallways and vestibules.

Those professionals using The Rotary Health and Wellness Centre are already experiencing an increase in the number of individuals served, and are happy to finally conduct their work in a more suitable manner. Along with the Centennial Award, the Seniors’ Committee provided extra funds to furnish the centre with cabinets and other necessities.

 

The Rotary Club of Toronto embodies the pioneer spirit, even in the twenty-first century. Where pioneers once travelled into unknown territory with little more than their courage, so Rotarians now venture into the service of the little-known and underserved population of older men on the margins of our society with their characteristic determination.

The Rotary Club of Toronto has more than once literally put wheels under the efforts of The Good Neighbours’ Club to offer essential services that promote the dignity and well-being of older homeless and marginalized men. The donation of a van for the use of the Club has long meant that Good Neighbours’ Club members have been able to access donations of food and clothing for our more than 5,000 members. More recently, the Rotary van has been used to distribute meals to shut-in members in our own meals-on-wheels program.

This spring The Rotary Club of Toronto raised its support of The Good Neighbours’ Club to a whole new level, awarding it The Rotary Club of Toronto Centennial Award. The $100,000 grant was used to construct the Rotary Health and Wellness Centre.

This new centre adds five new badly-needed rooms to the second floor of our facility at 170 Jarvis Street:

·         a recovery room for those who have had no shelter and no sleep

·         a multi-purpose clinical room featuring a folding dentist’s chair

·         a multi-purpose clinical room featuring an examination table

·         a counseling room for our front-line social work staff

·         a larger room for classes, meetings, and group therapy

These facilities will build both quantity and quality into the care of marginalized men over the age of fifty. Approximately 375 men visit the centre on any given day, and front-line health and social services are in high demand. Members of The Good Neighbours’ Club routinely lend a hand throughout  the Club, helping to keep the building ship-shape, serving meals, and assist in our programming.

The Director of Community and Social Services will be developing programming specifically for the Rotary Health and Wellness Centre, building bridges between agencies for the service of its members.

Members of The Rotary Club of Toronto are encouraged to drop by The Good Neighbours’ Club. They are invited to serve the noon meal, assist members in our computer café, drop in for a game of cards, become involved in one of our committees.