{"id":20422,"date":"2018-04-18T20:39:53","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T00:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20422"},"modified":"2018-04-18T20:39:53","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T00:39:53","slug":"community-living-excited-about-providing-a-link-and-a-return-to-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/community-living-excited-about-providing-a-link-and-a-return-to-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Community Living excited about providing a \u201clink\u201d and a return to home"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chuck Currie couldn\u2019t hide his excitement as he looked at the shovels outside the beige-sided building on Wednesday morning.
\nIt might look a bit sterile, a bit industrial, but for Chuck \u2013 and, indeed, many others living in Aurora and Newmarket \u2013 it is very much \u201chome.\u201d
\nChuck was one of dozens of clients, officials and dignitaries who gathered outside the shuttered home base of Community Living Central York to formally break ground on a new, renovated, and expanded facility in Newmarket that will serve the needs of hundreds of local adults living with intellectual challenges in Central York.
\n\u201cI want to get this rebuilt,\u201d said Chuck, who has been participating in Community Living day programs at temporary digs on Harry Walker Parkway in Newmarket. \u201cThe place we\u2019re in right now is a big place, but I want to move back here. I like this place a lot. This is our home!\u201d
\nThe renovation and expansion is part of a $5 million vision established by Community Living four years ago, based on the themes of \u201cinspiring possibilities\u201d and building \u201ca community where everyone belongs.\u201d
\n\u201cWe knew in order to truly live those statements, we needed to find a way for more people to access our programs, so began this four year journey,\u201d said Board member Karen Richards at last week\u2019s ceremony.
\nIt has been a long journey to get to this point, and the campaign to raise the $5 million, which is now 70 per cent complete, continues under the leadership of campaign co-chairs Catherine Callaghan and Aurora\u2019s 2017 Citizen of the Year Peter Van Schaik.
\n\u201cOur journey has been rewarding on so many unexpected levels that we were delighted,\u201d said Ms. Callaghan. \u201cWe reached out to the mayors of all the communities we are providing services and each and every one of them said, \u2018yes, they would help.\u2019 We reached out to many other individuals in the community of influence and each and every time they said they would help. It has been so rewarding.
\n\u201cWe have committed to finishing this campaign by the end of the year, reaching our $5 million and I know we can do it. We have the support and love of all of the people touched in this community we offer our services.\u201d
\nThe bean counting is being left up to the campaign committee; the day to day operators, program facilitators and clients are focused on the services they currently provide, and how much more they can actually do once their doors \u2013 shiny and new \u2013 are re-opened on Oak Street.
\n\u201cThis is amazing, and this is what life is about: it is about making dreams happen and opportunities for people that wouldn\u2019t otherwise happen,\u201d said Colleen Zakoor, Executive Director of Community Living Central York. \u201cWhen people with intellectual disabilities graduate from high school, they don\u2019t have the same access to education, their friends all leave, whereas other folks go to university or college and are friends for life. Then there is the part of the home and where other people live. It is about a friend, a job and a home.
\n\u201cThis [program and our expansion] is giving people access. We\u2019re going to expand services, address a waiting list and make life happen. It is so exciting, I can\u2019t believe it. This is really about making dreams come true. This project is why I\u2019m here. You go through the bumps, the peaks, the valleys, but you know what? It is a community where everyone is involved.\u201d
\nAlthough Ms. Zakoor estimates there are over 2,000 people in the area currently on the wait list for the types of programs Community Living provides in Central York, the upcoming expansion will allow a minimum of a further 200 people, at the very least, to take part in their services and allow them to stay open evenings and weekends, expand education and career programs, as well as services that focus on life-long learning and social aspects.
\n\u201cThe word \u2018hub\u2019 is over-used, but this is a \u2018link\u2019 to our community,\u201d she said.
\nThis is very much a sentiment shared by Daniel Collins, a self-advocate, who has been working with Community Living Central York since 2013.
\n\u201cA self advocate is someone who speaks up for someone who has a hard time speaking for themselves,\u201d he explained of his role. \u201cI have no problem standing up for people who have a hard time and I just don\u2019t let them get pushed around. It is an important role because everyone should have a voice. It is not fair that these special needs clients can\u2019t speak up for themselves and that is why it is important to have someone sort of advocate for them, speak up, and tell people what they need, and to back off and let them live their lives.
\n\u201cThis expansion is exciting because it is just going to be a whole new building when it is done; it is going to be bigger and more spacious for people in wheelchairs, people who need changing, we\u2019re going to have handicap capable washrooms, and it is just going to be very beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chuck Currie couldn\u2019t hide his excitement as he looked at the shovels outside the beige-sided building on Wednesday morning.
\nIt might look a bit sterile, a bit industrial, but for Chuck \u2013 and, indeed, many others living in Aurora and Newmarket \u2013 it is very much \u201chome.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/2018-04-19-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5jo","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 07:55:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}