Archives for August 2020

Archive for August, 2020

Renovations are well underway at the new Nellie’s shelter

Posted on: August 26th, 2020 by Nellie's No Comments

For nearly a decade, we searched for a new property to call home—one that retained the charm and coziness of our current shelter while also offering us greater accessibility and privacy for residents. Last year, we found one in the same east-end neighbourhood as our current shelter and a significant investment from the Ontario government helped us complete the acquisition.

But the new Nellie’s wasn’t move-in ready. Headed by former Executive Director Margarita Mendez, who agreed to stay on upon retirement to oversee this important project, construction and renovations have been steadily underway.

“Since I came to Nellie’s in 2006, it was my dream to find a new shelter to improve the living conditions for the women and children who need us, as well as improving the working conditions for staff” says Margarita. “

The new shelter will improve privacy by significantly increasing the current number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and spaces designated for children’s programming, and women’s counselling rooms. And, the entire building will be fully accessible as well as pet friendly.

There are two parts to the building—a three-storey Victorian home and a newer annex. The exterior of the older building is designated as a heritage property, which means certain restoration conditions must be met and approved by the city.

“To keep the character and feel of the building, our restorers have to bring certain parts of the home back to their original condition,” says Dylan Chrus, Construction Manager at Cooper-Gordon Ltd., who is overseeing and directing the project.

Here’s a deeper look at the work that’s happening at the new Nellie’s:

Historic brick restoration and roof repair. Scaffolding currently surrounds the exterior of the building as crews restore the entire outside masonry, brick by brick.
Window restoration. There are 56 windows on the older part of the building, some of which are stained glass. Each one is single pained, offering poor insulation. Crews are carefully removing each one, restoring them to their original condition while also adding insulating properties before re-installing them.
Plumbing upgrades. In order to have 20 washrooms in the sleeping area, 3 public/gender-neutral washrooms and 4 staff washrooms (compared to a total of just 5 toilets, 4 showers and 1 bathtub in the current Nellie’s shelter) we must run new plumbing on the ground, second and third floor.
Waterproofing and underpinning. A new elevator will be installed in the annex (which will allow access to all floors of both parts of the building), meaning certain sections of the basement needs to be underpinned to accommodate the shaft.
New air ducts for HVAC system. “Hopefully we’ll never live through another pandemic, but the design of the air circulation will help us be better prepared to face a crisis like the one recently experienced in most community living facilities. The air will be circulated in a much more effective way,” says Margarita.
Fire proofing. As is common in old buildings, some areas of the interior need to be upgraded to comply with modern fire code.

The new shelter is scheduled to be move-in ready in April 2021.

For the families who live here, Nellie’s is more than a shelter – it’s their home. Because of your support, our residents will feel more comfortable and relaxed in their new surroundings, and Nellie’s new shelter will be able to better meet their needs.

“We still need the support of our community to continue to raise the $2.5M we need for this shelter to be completely responsive to the needs of the population Nellie’s serves,” says Margarita.

For more information on supporting the renovation of Nellie’s new shelter, please contact Ingrid Graham, Director of Development, at Ingrid@nellies.org or at 416-645-1419.

Virtual fitness class fundraiser raises over $8,000 for Nellie’s

Posted on: August 4th, 2020 by Nellie's No Comments

When Jesse Bruce, a trainer at Toronto gym One Academy, heard that rates of domestic abuse against women could rise during the COVID-19 pandemic because of the increased isolation people are facing, he knew he needed to find a way to help his community. “We wanted to show our support, and we wanted people to know we cared about them, and that we were thinking about them at this time,” says Jesse. “We also wanted to bring our community together and provide some comfort and hope and strength to everyone.”

Coming from a difficult background himself, Jesse says that he really resonated with the women who come to Nellie’s, and all women impacted by abuse, trauma and homelessness, because “I’ve been in that same spot of not knowing where to go, and being in a dark place. “I’ve struggled with my own past and battled my own demons, and I’m 9 years sober this August,” says Jesse. “Fitness became part of my life and it changed my life.”

To combine his passion for fitness and his drive to help the women of Nellie’s, Jesse organized a virtual online workout class, where everyone who participated had to donate a minimum of $5 to join. Jesse went into the gym by himself on a Saturday in May to teach the class, and much to his amazement, hundreds of people joined from all over the world, including from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States, and all over Canada. Many were friends of the gym’s members. Overall, the event raised a total of more than $8,000.

The class was One Academy’s signature class called Everest: at the gym they say that if you can conquer that class, you can conquer Everest. Jesse decided to hold the event in May in honour of Mother’s Day, as an added connection to Nellie’s.

As a way to kickstart sign-ups for the class and raise further awareness for Nellie’s, Jesse also ran an additional fundraiser: he pledged to run and bike 1km up to an IronMan distance (180 km bike and 42.2km run) for every person who signed up. His initiative worked, and enough people signed up that he ended up doing the entire run and bike! He first completed the biking portion on his indoor trainer in his living room, and then he went outside to run the full marathon distance. The entire workout took him a little more than 8 hours, and he raised over $1,500 just on that one day.

Jesse is so proud of his One Academy family and how they joined him in coming out to support Nellie’s. “Giving back is something we do, we do it together and I think everyone can empathize with Nellie’s and the women and children that are there,” says Jesse. “I think it hits home for a lot of people. It was already a dark and scary time and I can only imagine what some of the women had to deal with.”

Thank you, Jesse and everyone at One Academy! Your generosity and passion means so much to the women and their children who come to Nellie’s.