Mental Health Awareness Week - May 6, 2024
New Comer's event On May 23, 2024
Eid Celebration 2024 (RISE)
Black History Month Event - February 23, 2024
Valentine's Day February 14, 2024
CPR - January 15, 2024
International Women’s Day March 8th, 2020
A more recent tradition is Madison’s annual celebration of International Women’s Day. This year, we celebrated with female clients and staff by acknowledging powerful women and their contributions, playing fun games and enjoying food together.
Client Holiday Party December 11th, 2019
Every year, Madison looks forward to hosting the Client Holiday Party. In 2019, we were fortunate to welcome clients, staff and members from the Board of Directors to celebrate the holiday season. As always, we were hosted by the 519 Community Centre, and enjoyed live music and great food together.
Annual Client Day Trip to the CNE August 30, 2019
Another annual client social –recreation event is a day at the CNE. The CNE offers a variety of pavilions, exhibits, shows, concerts, a working farm, horse show, casino, and a large carnival midway with rides, games and food. There was a good turn out of clients many of whom brought their children. It was a sunny summer day and everyone had a great time.
The Annual Centre Island Trip August 1, 2019
Madison’s Social Recreational Committee took many of our clients on a day trip adventure to Center Island in Toronto. This has become an annual tradition for many years.The clients enjoyed a ferry ride, a picnic lunch and got to see another side of the city on a lovely warm summer day. As you can see from their smiling faces, our clients always enjoy these opportunities to have a day outing in and around Toronto.
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Art Expressions Program – Annual Bazaar November 2, 2019
Madison’s Art Expressions Program, (which is sponsored by Equitable Bank and the art studio space is provided by Eden Community Homes), is a multicultural, expressive art-based support group that is held weekly. The art produced is showcased throughout the year.
The program engages clients in a creative healing process and provides them with opportunities to socialize, develop essential life skills and build a community for themselves. As part of encouraging the Art Expressions group to develop their artistic talents, the group participated in an annual bazaar which was held by St. Monica’s Catholic Women’s League.
International Women’s Day – Women’s Solution Dance Group March 8, 2019
Madison’s Women’s Solution Dance Group is a weekly peer- support group program, which provides opportunities for women clients to share thoughts, values, feelings and experiences in a safe, positive, and solution focused way. As part of the group’s activities, they celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8th 2019 by presenting a cultural fashion show followed by a fun games. Each Women’s Solution Dance Group session begins with the group dancing or a yoga session, which creates a, relaxing, friendly and energizing atmosphere that smoothly leads to the peer – group discussions. In addition, the Women’s Dance Group has been a regular performer at large Madison client events.
Madison’s Winter Wonderland Client Holiday Party December 2018
Madison Community Services held our annual Client’s Holiday Party on Tuesday, December 11th at the 519 Community Centre. Over 100 clients attended as well as Madison’s Board of Directors and special guests. Following this year’s theme of Winter Wonderland, the hall was decked out in wintery colours of white, blue and silver.
Scotiabank Charity Challenge October 21, 2018
On Sunday October 21st, Madison Community Services took part for the third year in the Scotiabank Charity Challenge to fundraise for our Client Education Bursary Fund. Through this fund, Madison is able to provide our clients financial support so they are able to pursue their educational or life/skill goals.
Centre Island Trip Summer 2018
Madison’s Social- Recreation Committee organized our annual summer client event of a day at Toronto’s Centre Island. This year the event was held on August 24 and it was a beautiful sunny summer day. Clients and staff enjoyed the scenic ferry ride, along with a picnic and took in the island’s natural beauty and various sights. As you can see from the event photos, everyone had a great time.
RISE goes to the ROM March 16, 2018
The Recovery during Immigration and Settlement (RISE) program workshop facilitators took their clients to the Royal Ontario Museum on March 16.The group consisted of nine clients, who are recent newcomers to Canada, and three facilitators who planned an afternoon immersed in diverse and historic exhibitions.
Queen’s Park Reception – Solutions for Ending Chronic Homelessness Feb. 20, 2018
On February 20th, Jean Stevenson (far right), participated in the planning of participation in preventing chronic homelessness. Numerous MPPs and Queen’s Park staff attended the reception.
Annual Clients Holiday Party December 2017
We celebrated our clients at our Annual Clients Holiday Party at The 519 Community Centre in Toronto. There were delicious eats, Santa made a pit-stop and we were joyously entertained by musical guests and an impressionist. A special thanks to Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam for attending the event and her inspiring speech to our staff, board members, and clients. And as always a big thanks to all our volunteers.
Madison Celebrates 40 Years of Service to Our Clients November 8, 2017
On November 8, 2017 Madison Community Services celebrated 40 years of providing community-based, non-profit mental health and addiction services and housing. This significant milestone event took place at Daniels Spectrum in Toronto with 150 clients and guests in attendance. The original founders of Madison Community Services, Ron Ballantyne & John Trainor, with Chris Higgins- Madison’s first Executive Director, were honored with special plaques. Of note, they shared that Madison was the first mental health supportive housing program in Toronto. In addition, there were other honorees who were gifted with artwork created by participants in Madison’s Art Expression Program for their support and involvement with Madison. The honorees were Equitable Bank, Roslyn Brown, MPP Cristina Martins, and Susan Fitzpatrick- CEO of TC LHIN. There were performances and presentations throughout the night all to celebrate Madison Community Services journey through the years.
Scotiabank Charity Challenge 2017 October 22, 2017
On October 22, 2017 Madison took part in The Scotiabank Charity Challenge to raise funds for our Client Education Bursary Fund. Although Madison is fortunate to have Equitable Bank as a sponsor of the Bursary Fund, the number of applications from clients exceeds EQ’s annual donation. This year Madison raised a total of $13,250 which has been used to provide 13 additional grants to clients in 2017-2018. The grants Madison offers through the Bursary Fund program help support our clients who are seeking to pursue learning from higher education programs as well as career and life skills training. The opportunity to take education programs – many of which can lead to employment – is transformational in their lives. Since the Equitable Bank – Bill Walker Memorial – Madison Client Education Bursary Funded began in December 2012 – 164 clients have received grants to support them in moving forward in their lives.
Center Island Trip 2017 Summer 2017
The Madison Social Recreational Committee took their clients on a day trip adventure to Center Island in Toronto. They enjoyed a ferry ride, a picnic lunch and got to see another side of the city on a lovely warm summer day. As you can see from their smiling faces, our clients always enjoy these opportunities to have a day outing in and around Toronto.
Madison’s 2nd Annual Fundraising Gala Dinner June 22, 2017
On June 22, 2017 Madison held our 2nd Annual Gala at Hart House’s second floor Debate Room. We were entertained with classic tunes by local favorites, THE COVER BOYS band. A silent auction took place with amazing prizes from Creative 111, Barre Works, The ROM, Mill St. Brewery, The AGO and more.
Madison’s Mental Health Awareness Week March – 2017
Mental Health Week in Canada is an annual event to spread awareness about mental illness, put a spotlight on the need to eliminate stigma about this illness and share stories of recovery. Did you know the colour green was used in the 1800s to label patients as “insane”? Green Ribbons are now the official symbol that mental illness is in fact an illness just like cancer (which uses pink ribbons) and there should be no stigma about this or any other illness. On Wednesday May 3rd, Madison staff and clients participated in Mental Health Awareness Week 2017 by organizing a March in Toronto down University Avenue and ending at City Hall. We distributed green ribbons and temporary green tattoos to spread the word about Mental Health Awareness Week and support its #GETLOUD campaign.
Clients Holiday Party 2016 / Bell Let’s Talk Grant Award December 14, 2016
Madison’s Holiday Party is an annual event which clients especially look forward to as a time to come together to celebrate this special time of year. This year we had even more to celebrate. At the event, Madison had the great privilege of being awarded a $20,000 grant through a presentation made from the Kristine Wilson, Associate Director, Community Involvement, and Symon Dwyer, Director, Government Affairs from Bell. Madison had applied to the Bell Let’s Talk Community Grant Fund to increase its capacity to serve Syrian refugees by bringing an additional Arabic speaking case manager onto Madison’s RISE program staff team. The RISE (Recovery during Immigration and Settlement) program supports both the settlement and mental health challenges of newcomers to Canada. Most of the RISE program clients come from war-torn countries and/or have experienced persecution and have trauma induced mental health issues. As always the Holiday Party featured a full course Turkey dinner , entertainment by clients – the Women’s Dance Group and the Hispanic Group (which sang holiday songs in Spanish), and wonderful social interaction time between clients, staff, board members and special guests. Special guests who attended the 2016 Holiday Party included Andrew Moor, CEO and Jody Sperling, VP Human Resources from Equitable Bank, Miriam Johnston, Manager Supportive Housing from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, Carol Latimer, Director, Housing Policy Branch from the Ministry of Housing, Teressa Wu, Supervisor from Immigration, Refugges, Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Toronto Branch, and Sandra Cunning, Director, Quality Improvement from Addictions and Mental Health Toronto.
Clients Presentation for Equitable Bank November 18, 2016
Equitable Bank has been a major corporate sponsor of Madison for over 6 years. Equitable provides funding for the Equitable–Madison Client Education Bursary Fund and the Art Expressions Group program. Since Andrew Moor, CEO and Jody Sperling, VP Human Resources who have made the annual decisions regarding End staff were invited to their head office so that the presentations to Equitable (quitable’s generous funding, were unable to attend our AGM this year, a number of clients awhich was done at the AGM) could also be made directly to them. Navid, a recipient of a Client Bursary Program grant made a touching speech about how far he has come since coming to Canada as a refugee from Iran and how the Client Bursary Program grant helped him move forward in his life. He also presented a beautiful collage celebrating the milestone that as of October 2016, 100 clients had received grants from the bursary fund. Mariana and Flor, both clients in the Art Expression Program, also shared moving speeches about their hardships prior to coming to Canada and how liberating it is to express their feelings through art. Both of them gifted our sponsor with beautiful paintings created through the weekly Art Expressions Program group sessions.
