Volunteers with St. Clair O’Connor Community’s Compassion Pathways program help those dealing with homelessness

By NATASHA JACKSON

At the St. Clair O’ Connor Community (SCOC), residents are bridging pathways to the unhoused of the city and creating care bags with daily essentials to help them feel supported and cared for.

Compassion Pathways is a grassroots initiative founded by Rebecca Freeman, Director of Programs and Community Development at SCOC.

Freeman started the initiative in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic out of her own home. She wanted to find a way to give back to her community by helping those who were homeless while also building connections with residents at SCOC who feel isolated and can’t volunteer themselves.

“Because I go and distribute the bags myself, I’ve had a lot of conversations with the people who are unhoused and I’ve heard a lot of their stories, and some of them had just fallen through very difficult times,” said Freeman.

Freeman and residents at SCOC create what they call “Blessing Bags” with essential items such as winter clothing, oral hygiene products and snacks to donate to the homeless across the GTA. They will assemble these bags, and the SCOC residents will write letters to the homeless to include in the Blessing Bags, providing words of encouragement.

The name Compassion Pathways comes from Freeman wanting to have different pathways for reaching out to those in need. So, the initiative provides not just the Blessing Bags but also by giving the SCOC residents a chance to volunteer and help others.

“This project allows seniors to be able to refine a sense of purpose within their community. We are a community hub so we’re not a retirement home, but there are residents here that are not as independent as some of the others,” said Freeman. “It kind of bridges that gap, and so I find it to be very impactful for them. They’re able to do something that’s good that makes them feel good without necessarily having to leave the building.” 

Freeman has seen the positive impacts the initiative has made on seniors volunteers’ physical and mental well-being.

Beach Metro Community News spoke with two residents who volunteer with Compassion Pathways and heard from them about what it is like to give back to their community at this stage in their lives.

“Oh, it’s something special, because I’m more or less tied here to the building. I get out once in a while with my daughter, so I’m not complaining. But it’s a little more difficult at this time in your life to get out and do things with other people,” said Winnifred McCarthy of why she volunteers.

She first heard about Compassion Pathways at one of her adult day classes at SCOC.

When Compassion Pathways first started, McCarthy and some other residents would only write the encouragement cards. They wanted to make sure what they were writing was compassionate and supportive. Like many of the other residents, she wanted to feel connected to her community and volunteering was a way to do that without having to leave home.

“So this made it a lot easier and we were all talking about that, too. How we could let people know that other people were thinking of them,” said McCarthy. 

Anne Pomeroy said she heard about Compassion Pathways at one of SCOC’s town hall meetings. She has done previous volunteer work with a church as a missionary for 40 years, so she was glad to find out that she could give back to her community with some of her neighbours.

“Doing something like this nowadays, it does your heart good. It makes you feel good inside that you’re helping a little bit. That’s why I got involved,” said Pomeroy.

Compassion Pathways is funded by donations from community residents. Those wishing to help, can drop off any unused items, living essentials or food to SCOC throughout the year to help contribute to the program.

For specific information on how to support Compassion Pathways, please go to https://www.instagram.com/compassionpathways/ and click on the Wish List link.

The St. Clair O’Connor Community is a non-profit organization, with historical links to East Toronto Mennonite churches, that is dedicated to creating a safe and caring environment for aging seniors, and is an intergenerational community where families both young and older live. For more information, please go to https://scoc.ca/