WELCOME INN COMMUNITY CENTRE OF HAMILTON
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Mission Statement
Together with the community, Welcome Inn works to alleviate poverty, loneliness and marginalization—challenges that our community members face on a daily basis—by offering supportive relationships, promoting wellness and providing capacity-building opportunities.
About This Cause
Welcome Inn is a dynamic community centre that dares to imagine that there is a different and more vibrant path forward for ALL members of our community. Welcome Inn works to alleviate poverty, loneliness, and marginalization—things that our community members face on a daily basis—by offering supportive relationships, promoting wellness, and providing capacity-building opportunities. Our four program areas include: Children's Programs, Seniors' Programs, Food Access Initiatives, and Community Programs, including supports for recent immigrants to Canada. All four program areas are designed to improve eight key aspects of wellness, namely emotional, physical, social, financial, intellectual, occupational, environmental, and spiritual wellness. Throughout Welcome Inn’s 58 years of operation, our programs have been shaped by our commitment to an asset-based framework for community development, and all community members, especially those who have been marginalized, have been integral to the planning and implementation of our programming. A bit of our history: Since 1966, poverty, loneliness, and marginalization have been overcome by offering supportive relationships and community-based initiatives at Welcome Inn Community Centre. Originally started as a series of urban renewal projects, Welcome Inn has, for decades now, operated out of an asset-based framework for community development. We recognize that good community development is a matter of involving all members in the planning and implementation of all programs, including the staffing of our community centre. Our work is a collaborative effort to effect systemic change. Our current afterschool program for children--Learning and Fun--was launched in 2000, with a new mental health component being added in 2020 and a new civic engagement component being added in 2024. For decades now, we have offered a low-barrier summer day camp for neighbourhood children experiencing poverty. For those on the other end of the age spectrum, Welcome Inn has operated a weekly congregate dining program and in-home visitation for at-risk seniors. These support programs were initially designed to help vulnerable and isolated seniors age well in their own homes, but a new component—Life Navigation—was added in 2022 for those seniors who present with more complex needs. Our food bank, together with its related food access initiatives and advocacy work, was launched in 1991, and we continue to be registered as a Good Food Organization. In 2021, we added various immigration-related supports to our existing community programs, including translation services at our free tax clinic. The work we do, as an organization, is constantly evolving, but it continues to be rooted in the core values of inclusion, respect, and peace. Last year, Welcome Inn’s staff team of 9 permanent members worked with 379 volunteers to bring about justice and systemic change within our north end community. Together, we served 37,328 community members in four program areas: Children’s Programs: Our Learning and Fun afterschool program (68 participants) recently added a new mental health component and civic engagement opportunities, as did Teen Talks (13 youth). Both programs connect children and youth with supportive mentors, most of whom volunteer with us through McMaster University’s Student Open Circles. Our summer day camp is offered to those families experiencing low income, and we welcomed 289 campers last summer. Seniors’ Programs: In addition to a weekly congregate dining program, Welcome Inn organizes a visitation program for isolated seniors. Last year, we served 2,952 meals to 192 seniors, and our volunteers visited 171 seniors on a weekly basis. A new Life Navigation component was added in 2021 to support seniors as they navigate the health care system, food insecurity, mental health situations, and housing crises. The Life Navigation expansion has meant that 1,486 complex situations have been addressed by our team of trained volunteers and staff over the past 12 months. Food Access Initiatives: Our food bank, together with its related food access initiatives and advocacy work, partners with all the other agencies that make up the Emergency Food Strategic Planning Council, and we actively partner with Hamilton Food Share. Over the past 12 months, our food bank was visited 35,712 times and distributed 107,136 days of food (8,033 unique community members). With 47% of these people being recent immigrants, it is worth highlighting the fact that we served 3,775 recent immigrants through our food bank and provided them with referral services. Community Programs: Welcome Inn is presently launching “Getting Settled”, transitioning four immigration-related pilot programs into a single, more permanent, program. Last year, our settlement support staff provided 804 recent immigrants with access to settlement services, peer-to-peer support groups, and English conversation circles. Our free tax clinic also enabled 214 individuals to complete their annual tax returns, and the tax clinic included translation services for those community members who are new to Canada.