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FAITHLINES
11 December 2025
In this issue:
Matching Challenge Grant update
Year-end Countdown
A Place Called Home, Lindsay
Visit faithworks.ca for more information
and to view our video library
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Donate today at faithworks.ca
or scan this QR code
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Help us reach this challenge!
We are at 75%
$100,000
Matching Challenge Grant for 2025
You can make twice the difference.
A generous donor has offered a $100,000 matching challenge grant for all new and increased donations. This means that for every dollar you donate over last year’s amount, by an individual or parish, FaithWorks receives an extra dollar. We encourage you to make a special effort this year.
Donate today at faithworks.ca or use the QR code
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It's the year-end countdown!
14 days until Christmas
and 20 days left in 2025!
May I remind you that it is time to review your charitable pledges and intentions for 2025.
Please support the FaithWorks' 2025 campaign as we continue to work towards our annual goal of $1.5 million.
We would like to exceed that goal to offer more assistance
to our ministry partners as the need continues to grow.
Let’s all review our charitable intentions and pledges and be as generous as we can in 2025!
Donate today at faithworks.ca
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The following is the Report to Synod from
A Place Called Home
in Lindsay,
a FaithWorks' ministry partner your donation supports.
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by Angela Riccuiti, Executive Director
and Jennifer Lopinski,
Fund Development Coordinator
(picture of Nicole Bryant, Shelter Mgr.)
For over 30 years, A Place Called Home has been a beacon of hope, operating the only homeless shelter serving the residents of the City of Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton County. Inspired by Acts 6:10, we believe we are "Chosen to tell the Good Story" through our actions and support. Each year, we provide a safe place to sleep, meals, advocacy, and housing support to hundreds of men, women, and families with children. Our compassionate staff offer moral support and guidance, helping those experiencing homelessness to regain stability in their communities.
Our agency also provides critical Drop-In Services to those who have recently moved out of our shelter and to those at risk of becoming homeless, enhancing their housing stability. These essential supports include hot meals, packed lunches, access to showers, laundry facilities, private phones, access to a computer, internet, and Wi-Fi services. Most importantly, clients accessing this essential program have the opportunity to meet with our qualified staff to develop new housing stability plans and receive important community referrals to specialized services as needed.
The individuals who access our services come from diverse backgrounds but share the traumatic experience of losing their housing. From clients with histories of addiction, incarceration, or mental health struggles to families displaced by fire or floods, and youths and seniors escaping abusive environments, our client pool is varied. Despite their challenges, they all share one positive outcome: when they arrive at our agency, they are in crisis, and when they leave, they are stable and moving towards a sustainable future.
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The past five years have been particularly challenging for our clients and staff. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we had to move our clients and staff into a hotel to meet restrictions. Faced with this monumental decision, we launched our largest fundraiser to raise $1.5 million for a new purpose-built shelter. Thanks to the generosity of our community members and faith groups, we succeeded. In June 2022, we moved back into our new shelter, but the need for affordable housing remained critical. We took immediate action, renovating our two old shelter buildings to provide both transitional and permanent housing options for clients ready to move out.
FaithWorks has been an essential partner since 2001, when a $22,000 donation supported our early outreach efforts. In the past three years, your donations of $15,000 in 2023 and $18,000 in 2024 have provided critical food resources for our Shelter and Drop-In Services program. This year, the $14,400 we received helped us purchase new mattresses for our shelter, which were direly needed as we increased our shelter capacity from 19 to 30, and many of our mattresses were in poor condition.
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Since moving into our new shelter in 2022, demand for our Shelter and Drop-In Services has doubled. Your generous donations provide food to hundreds of vulnerable individuals each year, many of whom are living rough or in precarious situations as our community faces a housing shortage and inflationary pressures.
Currently, our agency provides three nutritious meals a day, plus snacks and school lunches to shelter residents, and up to 50 additional meals per day for our Drop-In Services clients. Our modest kitchen will provide approximately 45,000 meals this year. Sharing meals in a communal setting fosters positive social interactions, builds trust, and provides opportunities for clients to share their experiences, helping them move forward.
Recently, we were awarded funding to develop a new strategic plan to guide our agency for the next five years. We are eager to build a positive future for our organization to support the homeless in our community effectively. We work tirelessly at telling the “Good Story” to inspire others to give and share how even a little support can go a long way to help those accessing our services to get back on their feet and back to into the community.
As we strive to ensure everyone has a safe place to call home, we deeply appreciate FaithWorks' continued support of our mission.
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2025 Kawartha Lakes Classic Cycling Tour
to benefit A Place Called Home
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FaithWorks Sermon or Presentation
To assist and inspire, you can arrange for a sermon, presentation or visit by representatives of our ministry partners, the Director of Stewardship Development, Peter Misiaszek, or me, by contacting the FaithWorks Speakers Bureau at
fwspeakersbureau@toronto.anglican.ca
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If you wish to highlight your parish's events in support of FaithWorks, please forward the details to faithworks@toronto.anglican.ca
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FaithWorks 30th Anniversary Videos
The FaithWorks website, faithworks.ca has been updated with new videos for our 30th anniversary. There are short, medium and long videos to include in your parish's online presence or in-person gatherings. They can be downloaded directly from the website.
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Followers of Jesus, inspired by the Holy Spirit, serve the world God loves!
I acknowledge that my office resides on the territory of sovereign Indigenous Nations, the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat. I acknowledge especially the Mississaugas of the Credit and the Toronto Treaties.
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