Sixty-five years ago today, Bellwoods’ founders opened the doors to the first community residence for woman living with cerebral palsy at 718 Kingston Road.
Originally started for the purpose of supporting social contact for women with cerebral palsy, the Adult Cerebral Palsy Association became the nucleus and impetus for growth and development for what is now known as Bellwoods Centres for Community Living Inc.
On behalf of Bellwoods’ Board of Directors, and the entire Bellwoods team, we want to thank you for your ongoing support throughout Bellwoods’ history. While the City of Toronto has changed greatly over the past 65 years, Bellwoods’ mission to support people with physical disabilities and help them to live independently in the community remains at the core of our mission.
Today, our supportive housing and attendant outreach programs continue to support some of the most vulnerable people — people with physical disabilities, mental illness, chronic health conditions, surviving life-altering catastrophic accidents — providing them with a home and support services to start on the path toward recovery and reintegration into the community. Our experience and a growing body of research supports three main conclusions:
- Supportive housing helps people with disabilities live with dignity and independence in their community.
- Living in supportive housing and attendant outreach services reduces the use of emergency health care, hospital admissions, and unnecessary
long-term care admission. - Supportive housing communities help people with disabilities receive more appropriate health and community supports that meet their needs.
Today, however, the attendant outreach and supportive housing community faces the devastating consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with an ongoing affordable housing crisis, and lack of adequate funding to support the needs of our clients. We see more of our clients struggling to support their basic needs, more families unable to provide assistance, and more staff struggling to keep-up with the changing support needs of clients across all of our programs.
We welcome everyone to join the celebration of our 65th anniversary milestone by sharing your ideas on the value of supportive housing and attendant outreach today and into the future. Our Bellwoods Communications team will compile and share them with our community and partners. Please email your comments to ayip@bcclsp.org Throughout the year, we will share stories that illuminate and celebrate the people and places at the core of our work. These stories will reflect on the people and moments that have brought us to our 65th anniversary and highlight what is needed to continue to raise awareness of the value of this sector.
Thank you everyone for being part of our community.
Susan Jewell,
Interim Chief Executive Officer
Mary Lewis,
Chair – Board of Directors
