Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre (PARC) | September 2026 | View as Webpage

A Home. A Job. A Friend. A Neighbourhood.

Hi Neighbour,

This month, a member finds her way back to the Drop-in, neighbours gather at PARC for a housing town hall with The Shift, and we remember a friend whose generosity still shapes Parkdale. With National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30, Grandmother Vivian Recollet shares what reconciliation can look like at organizations like PARC.

Thank you for reading, and for being part of this community with us.

- Kerry

Mary Ann plays the long game

Mary Ann hadn't been to PARC in about 15 years when she came back to the Drop-in this summer. On her first day, a Drop-in worker asked if she wanted to shoot hoops on the court behind the building. “It totally reeled me back into coming to PARC,” she says.

Now she's at the Drop-in most days for breakfast and lunch, sharpening her dominoes game with other members. She's also mapping out the next 10 years with PARC staff, including taking classes at TMU, getting first aid certified, and starting a weight training routine.

Our team is helping her turn those goals into action.

Read Mary Ann's full story

Housing is not for sale

On September 10, neighbours, members, and housing advocates filled PARC's auditorium for People over Portfolios, a town hall co-hosted with The Shift. Days before the Canada Investment Summit, the evening centred on the question: who is our housing actually for?

We were honoured to work alongside Leilani Farha, former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing and Global Director of The Shift. Leilani has spent decades showing that this crisis was built by policy and finance, and that it can be undone. She is the 2026 CBC Massey Lecturer, and her new book, Housing, Inc.: A Global Takeover and Our Fight for Home, is out now.

Participants developed a shared call to action urging the federal government to keep institutional investors out of the business of housing people and to redirect public money to non-market housing, including co-ops, community land trusts, and supportive homes.

Today, PARC provides 109 units of supportive housing, and with 11 Brock Avenue opening this winter, that number will grow to 151. Housing is where health, food security, and recovery meet, and people with lived experience of homelessness belong in the decisions that shape it. Thank you to Leilani Farha and The Shift for bringing that conversation to Parkdale.

You can learn more about Leilani and The Shift on their website.

Anishinaabe Grandmother Vivian Recollet on healing, reciprocity, and bringing the circle back to PARC

On September 30, we mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and remember the children who were sent to residential and day schools, those who never came home, and the survivors and families who carry that history.

This year, PARC's Indigenous Talking Circle returned as part of our regular programming. It meets on the first Tuesday of every month and is led by Grandmother Vivian Recollet, a nurse who has spent her career in Indigenous health promotion and who leads healing work across Parkdale and the rest of the city.

We sat down with Grandmother Vivian to talk about how she came to this work. When we asked what organizations like PARC owe to reconciliation, her answer was consistency. PARC had a circle once, and then it was gone. Bringing it back is a small step, and "keeping it," she says, "is the real commitment."

September 30 is also Orange Shirt Day. To support Indigenous artists and organizations, explore the Native Arts Society, the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto , and Resist Clothing.

Our members are worth more than "any job"

Members often come to Donna Lee Marshall ready to take any shift, at any wage. As Employment Facilitator in the PARC Employment Program, she starts somewhere else: helping members recognize the skills and strengths they already have.

“Once you know your value, you walk into an interview understanding what you bring to the table,” says Donna Lee.

Alongside résumés and interview practice, she helps members rebuild confidence and learn their rights, so no one settles for a job that takes advantage of them.

Read Donna Lee's full story

A gift that lasts

September 15 marked nine years since we lost Sheila Koffman to cancer. At PARC, her name still comes up all the time and her legacy lives on.

Sheila opened Another Story Bookshop on Roncesvalles Avenue in 1987 and ran it as a collective with her staff. She built it around social justice, Black and feminist writers, and books for readers the publishing industry had overlooked. She came to PARC as a neighbour and local business owner, and stayed for a decade, serving as Co-Chair of our Board of Directors.

When Sheila stepped back from the board in 2016, she told us she was leaving the proceeds from the sale of her home to PARC. Sheila's gift went toward the deposits on 28 and 30 Beaty Avenue and 1501 Queen Street West, helping keep 54 homes out of the private market and permanently affordable.

Sheila planned her gift years ahead, and people are still benefitting from her generosity.

A gift in your will can shape our work in the same way. If you'd like to talk about leaving a legacy with PARC, email donations@parc.on.ca or reply to this email.

A Community where People Rebuild Their Lives

Visit us online: parc.on.ca

Instagram & Facebook

To donate: parc.on.ca/donate