PACC Poverty Awareness Neighbourhood Network Breakfast
Fred and I got an opportunity last week to join numerous Chairs and Executive Directors and such at the Neighbourhood Network meet and greet breakfast held at the historic Aurora Cultural building on Church St.
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| Fred Joly points to the hearty grub available for attendees |
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| Tom Pearson at the Neighbourhood Network Breakfast at the Aurora Cultural Centre |
The impressive breakfast was served continental style - kind of like "Inn from The Cold" meets Spagos. Ha! After the usual coffee, tea, and juice choices the tables were littered with mini muffins of all flavours, fresh fruit, granola with plain yogurt, bagels, and a hot baked egg dish seemingly stuffed with healthy accompaniments..mmm? Out of etiquette, I was halfway through my granola yogurt when I realized no one else was eating. Oops..Faux-pas perhaps I thought, as I sheepishly looked up at Fred who too was devouring something deliciously edible. After all he was looking to me to show the ropes. Gulp. Sorry Fred.
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| Quite the gathering at the annual Neighbourhood Network breakfast |
After munching and mingling, we all got to introduce ourselves and give a 2 minute blurb about who and what we were, which I wasted my entire timeslot talking about an event we already held - our annual Friendly Neighbourhood Youth Road Hockey Challenge - free to all kids and awarding one with an $ education award as I want to grow sponsorship. I never got to mention anything new we're up to such as the " House of Hope"work program including a new grow food initiative in it's infancy that rewards land lenders with $ for allowing food to be grown on their property. PACC was able to find 1/2 acre for such use with overflow going to those in need at no cost. We hope to add collaborative partners to expand including training at risk persons to become independent organic growers and farmers.
It was nice to hear about / from other organizations including Big Brothers, Big Sister's E.D. Grant Pickford who went out of his way to tell us to keep up the good work. Nice to hear support from others as, due to the nature of what PACC does - IE: Make noise when needed - we are sometimes somewhat isolated in our work with some allies, but most having to stick to an agenda or mission not quite what ours is. For example although The Heart and Stroke Foundation do great work, the fact that they are the areas main funders for advocacy against poverty through the "healthy living / eating angle, is interesting. They weren't present on this day however, although I'm sure would have approved of the health level of the food. Ha.
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| Tom Taylor (former mayor of Newmarket) shares his perspectives during the breakfast |
It was nice to hear about / from other organizations including Big Brothers, Big Sister's E.D. Grant Pickford who went out of his way to tell us to keep up the good work. Nice to hear support from others as, due to the nature of what PACC does - IE: Make noise when needed - we are sometimes somewhat isolated in our work with some allies, but most having to stick to an agenda or mission not quite what ours is. For example although The Heart and Stroke Foundation do great work, the fact that they are the areas main funders for advocacy against poverty through the "healthy living / eating angle, is interesting. They weren't present on this day however, although I'm sure would have approved of the health level of the food. Ha.
Others of note in attendance were Belinda Stronach's (Founder) N.N. crew including Linda Potter, Tim Jones, Steve Hinder, John Crowell - who celebrated a 30th birthday, and Tom Taylor among others. Belinda Stronach was also just honoured with an honourary doctorate I understand as well, so a positive buzz was in the room. It was an opportunity to mingle and make possible collaborative partners such as for our road hockey event or Oct 17 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty or to just plain engage folks with many being outside our usual circles, such as Aurora Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club members and great gents such as Aurora Senior's Centre's Charles Sequeira who shared with me he's noticed an increase in seniors affected by income, and as well it was nice to share with Inn from the Cold's Brenda Northey about our PACC pilot program the Talk 2-one messaging system which has allowed us to distributed phone numbers with voice-messaging 24/7, helping to place homeless and at risk men and women into homes and jobs! We will be reporting results to YR Commissioner Adelina Urbanski soon in hopes of having the service picked up York Region wide!
I also took the opportunity to refer to a program represented by the Salvation Army as dignified to point out that having to ask for handouts no matter how well intentioned - is not dignified - and programs perhaps should not be stated as such. Don't get me wrong the S.A. church do some good work. Luckily, with my wording, not many got the dig - after all - we're all friends here right! Ha!As a PACCer once said to me from her scooter, "Poverty doesn't need a middleman"
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| Fred chats up Rob Clark explaining his out-of-the-box two-sided business card |
Fred Joly, pictured speaking with Snap Aurora and RC Design's Rob Clark, also attended with me as PACC's other representative. Fred, who comes from lived experience, is now an SEO website expert - meaning he can drive targeted traffic to websites by the droves from the search engine results pages - and as well he has helped us with our new "House of Hope" programs which includes training others in painting / drywall taping to professional standards which he used at the "House Of Hope" location at Green Lane and Leslie St's in Newmarket Ontario, to teach the homeless guys and others who got paid work on the project how to do so professionally to standard. Fred Joly is also a talented artist, songwriter and musician with plans to assist workshops and sales spots once the house is up and running among other great work he's done for Poverty Action for Change Coalition. When you'd like increased qualified web traffic to your website (get more donations especially) - Fred's willing to offer special rates for optimizing websites for York Region non-profits or charities.
Check out this Fun Video showcasing services by the Neighbourhood Network by TP Entertainment & Media via PACC!
Up next I visit Ontario Government Poverty Reduction co-chair Frances Lankin in Toronto
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