Giving back and cleaning up the community in which they operate.
As part of their commitment and ongoing efforts to work collaboratively with neighbours and contribute to quality of life, the Downtown Mission organized a block clean up along with a barbecue on Friday.
The Downtown Mission’s leadership team, staff, volunteers and guests were picking up debris and waste from the block in the area between Erie and Elliot Street, along with Ward 3 Councillor Renaldo Agostino who took a key role in organizing the event.
Ward 3 councillor Renaldo Agostino and volunteers at the Downtown Mission on Friday, June 9, 2023 (Photo taken by AM800's Aaron Mahoney)
Agostino says they do a lot of community clean ups in the area, and he thought it would be good to do one with staff and volunteers from the Mission.
"Keeps things clean, and sends out a signal to the people in the area that people here do care as you can see. Lights are getting changed, there's going to be a fence going up soon, so slowly but surely we're facing the challenges. Which sometimes seem insurmountable, but that's not going to stop us from keeping on trying," he said.
He says regarding the situation it's always up and down, with good days and bad, but it's clear the Mission wants to be part of a solution.
"It's been really good working with the Mission, they want to help as much as they can. I say things about Mission, but they're like single parent with 1000 kids, you know what I mean? They have their hands full, so we all have to step up and help out, and that's why we're here today."
In past years when the Mission was located on Victoria Avenue, the organization would invite their neighbours for an annual BBQ to say thank you, but the event wasn't held during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mission Executive Director Rukshini Ponniah-Goulin says they've been facing a lot of issues in the downtown core, with people wanting more work being done to keep the area cleaned up, so it was good to get a number of partners involved to do just that.
"We thought why not? This was a great opportunity to get our staff, volunteers, our students, and participants from a couple of our programs that we run here. They all wanted to get involved as well, and then we invited our community at large," she said.
Back in March, councillor Agostino held a town hall discussion about problems happening around the Mission.
Ponniah-Goulin says even before then they had a lot of volunteers trying to address concerns, but after that, they had even more volunteers reaching out wanting to help.
"Which has been really great, and many people have actually been saying in even different calls I've been on in the past week that they have been noticing a significant difference on our property and around in the area as well."
The Mission re-introduced the clean up event as part of its community outreach, and to establish a rapport and foster a good relationship with the people in the nearby community.