Norma administers out Celebrating the Family program. She organizes hearing, speech and vision clinics every month at the Parenting and Family Literacy Centre at Rose Avenue School. She is responsible for all of the parent follow up and also works with Deanna Smith, our speech pathologist
Ali is the presence of Community Matters in St. James Town. Since agreeing to participate with us in 2006 he has contributed to every aspect of our work. His skills, ability and wisdom have supported many of the new comers who visit us. He is constantly working on many projects and most days can be found at Community Matters talking with our neighbours about the many challenges facing those new to the neighbourhood and to Canada.
Dianna has also contributed for over three years, from the beginning of Community Matters. She originally participated in our first Job Club sessions, volunteered and then coordinated our employment programs. She has recently moved on to full time employment and so has less time. Now she contributes to us as a trainer and adviser. She has previously helped coordinate our support group for children with special needs, and conducted employment workshops throughout the community. Dianna also gave the keynote speech at the recent community Citizenship ceremony.
Fred made a great contribution to the community through his tireless efforts in organizing the St. James Town Youth Choir. Originally he helped conduct our first Citizenship classes and now then moved on to start the choir from scratch. The choir had over thirty members and met regularly during the school year participating in concerts in the surrounding neighbourhood. The choir ha now blended into our full music program
Mike volunteers at Community Matters with our homework club. He is a law student at the University of Toronto and during the winter months has been participating in the community joining with us in our Community Circle Facilitator training. He will be one of three counsellors at our 2007 Summer Literacy Camp.
Judith volunteers to coordinate 'Clothes Encounters'. This social club is designed to support those who enjoy clothing, crafts and creating new designs and fashions. The club meets in the basement of 240 Wellesley where Judith is transforming space to welcome all those who are interested.
Darlene both volunteers at Community Matters and organizes her own neighbourhood programs including "Unlabelled" a program for young girls. She also contributes to the St. James Town Community Trust, a cooperative group of small organizations in the neighbourhood as well as participating in Community Circle Facilitator training.
Trish represents the real spirit of volunteerism. In addition to committing her time with Community Matters to provide guidance to members of our job club she also volunteers her time with seniors and with Meals on Wheels. As an district manager for a financial firm she brings real life perspectives to our job club participants as well as conducting employment work shops for members of the community
Laxmi has volunteered with Community Matters helping us with our administration activities for the last year. She has set up the data bases for our volunteer and participant information. She has also made contact with organizations throughout Toronto requesting support in the form of admission tickets and other donations. She has been very successful with this effort so that many participants have benefited.
Ingred volunteers with our Community Trust initiative. She has been working with Margaret on our fund raising activity. We have had great successes with some service organizations. Ingred also organizes a internet cafe for the kids in her building at 145 Mutual Street.
Becky volunteers teaching piano on Saturdays to children in the neighbourhood. She recently organized our concert introducing our Music Room to the community. Her students each performed a piece of music for a large gathering of neighbours during the St. James Town Festival
Sunita and Sheila exemplify what we mean by true volunteerism. For more than a year they have run our English Cafe on Wednesday evenings.They live in the area and take no credit for their work, saying, 'These are our friends and neighbours'!'
Chelva is a talented tutor who not only works directly with children and youth at CMT but helps with our Education portion of the CMT Website and training programs for our staff. He is the father of teenage twins and enjoys writing in his spare time. Chelva also conducts our Tuesday evening Englsh Cafe.
Zhara is helping us set up our Community Circles approach. Based on PeaceBuilding Circles originated by aboriginal people in Canada and around the world, it is an approach to peace and conflict resolution. With her help we are training circle members and Facilitators. Zhara embodies this approach: she is a model of how to 'restore balance' in families and communities
Doris has volunteered with us for over a year. We are fortunate as Doris has an ESL teaching certificate. She is a dedicated volunteer and has introduced and provided our Saturday ESL cafe.
Benjamin has recently come to Canada from England and is getting his fist volunteer experience here volunteering with our Summer Literacy Camp.
Sapan is studying Life Sciences at the University of Toronto. He has brought his knowledge and enthusiasm to our Summer Literacy Camp.
Sonaja started volunteering at our Homework club. Her dedication has carried over to our Summer Literacy Camp. Sonaja's mom also volunteers with us and has provided a lot of the lunches for the camp
Hedi gives all her energy to our support group for parents with children with autism. She has gathered a great deal of knowledge and experience which she willingly shares with other parents, the support group and participants and the Parenting and Family Literacy Centre at Rose Avenue School
Lynn has volunteered to be our bookkeeper and accountant for the last two years. Even for a small charity such as ourselves there is a tremendous amount of time required to record and keep our records accurate. Lynn has volunteered countless hours to do this and currently employed as an accountant and is taking courses to complete her CGA designation.
Bharti has contributed to Community Matters for over three years. She has participated in employment courses, has volunteered and organized our After School programs and is presently a member of our Board of Directors.
Matt started volunteering with us when he came to live in St. James Town. He has contributed to our homework club, our English Cafe's and has provided private language support to some of our neighbours. He is currently contributing his time to work on our web site.
Deanna has contributed to our "Celebrating the Family" program for over three years as our speech pathologist. She has worked with all our Community Assistants, imparting her knowledge and providing guidance. Se has dedicated her time to the family's of St. James Town whose children need extra support in developing their language and speech skills
Yan volunteers teaching piano to children in the neighbouhood each Sunday. She also volunteers at Rose Avenue Public School teaching piano. Yan opened our Music concert on June 10 with an accordion solo which introduced our new music rooms to the community. Yan also participates in our Tuesday English Cafe
Myriam has taught French to Intermediate School students at CMT for the past two years. She is enthusiastic and very committed to her work with us, rarely missing a Saturday! She wants to train to be a teacher.
Sophie works with junior students teaching French on Saturday mornings. She was introduced to us by Myriam and has in turn brought in her husband Sylvain, to help out.
CONGRATULATIONS to you both on the birth of your son Samuel!!!
Kate and Jasmine work for Toronto Public Health. They have brought their enthusiasm and love for food and cooking to our Take Five nutrition classes
Max also volunteers at our Summer Literacy Camp. He is a student at the University of Toronto.
Marg and Chris
It is an honour to have worked with residents and volunteers through Community Matters for years. We help with setting up programs, working in the Job Club, English Cafe and the St James Town Community Trust, and whatever else it takes to maintain and grow this wonderful spirit of community we have together!
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