Covenant House Toronto

Covenant House Toronto, Canada’s largest shelter for at-risk, homeless, and trafficked youth, has provided opportunity and hope to more than 90,000 young people since it opened its doors in 1982. The agency not only provides a place to stay, but also serves youth through a 24/7 crisis shelter, transitional housing on-site and in the community, and offers comprehensive services such as education, counselling, health care, employment assistance, job training, and aftercare. Every day, the Toronto location helps as many as 250 youths, aged 16 to 24, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or the circumstances that have brought them to their doors.

Over the holiday season, six members of DCR Strategies spent a day working alongside staff at Covenant House. Following a guided tour of the living quarters, communal area, active areas (which includes a full gym), and donation rooms, the team helped serve lunch to the youths and meet with on-site staff. It was an emotional, eye-opening experience that left everyone in attendance with an unforgettable memory.

“From the minute I had my first contact with the charity, I knew it was something that was going to help change many lives within the Toronto community. Being given the opportunity to deliver a service to youths was an amazing experience and something I won’t forget for a very long time. The situations that many of the youths encounter on a daily basis is something that someone should never face. This is a charity I personally will be supporting moving forward, from donating clothes/food or giving up free time to interact on a personal level.”

– James Stevenson, Marketing Coordinator

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The Children’s Book Bank

The Children’s Book Bank is a charitable organization whose mission is to provide children’s books and literacy support to children living in high needs communities in Toronto. The Book Bank is just like a wonderful children’s bookstore, except that the books are available to the children FREE of charge.

In addition to supplying free books, The Children’s Book Bank also offers informal literacy support through its various programs, including Dictionaries for Newcomers, Books across the City and School Trips with Story Times, wherein local schools visit the Book Bank for story time followed by free “book shopping.” Each child and visitor is allowed to select one book from the storefront to take home and keep forever.

The Children’s Book Bank is appealing to communities in Toronto to help it build and sustain its inventory of books. Huguette has agreed to support The Children’s Book Bank by hosting a book drive at DCR during the weeks of 20th February 2018 to 6th March 2018. Please take care to ensure that the donated books are gently used, suitable for children up to grade six (11yrs/12yrs) and have been printed within the last 10 years (no teen or adult books please).

This campaign, staff members at DCR Strategies teamed up to send over 500+ books to children in need across the Toronto area.

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Samaritan’s Purse | “Operation Christmas Child”

“Operation Christmas Child,” a project of Samaritan’s Purse, brings good news and great joy to children around the world by gifting shoeboxes filled with fun toys, hygiene items, and school supplies.

Samaritan’s Purse is a humanitarian aid organization that provides aid to people in physical need as a key part of Christian missionary work. Each year, people of all ages pack shoebox gifts to help children in need around the world. Parents often use the project to teach their kids about giving. Churches and groups of all sizes collect boxes from their communities, and thousands of volunteers serve annually to help inspect, prepare, and ship shoeboxes to over 100 countries. Only a $10 donation is required to cover project costs–including shipping–for each shoebox.

This year, staff members at DCR Strategies teamed up to send more than 50 boxes of toys to children in need across the world.

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