DIGNITY FOR ALL PROGRAM
OUR PARTNERS Gold Partner ($3,000+)
Silver Partner ($2,000 - $2,999)
Bronze Partner ($1,000 - $1,999)
The Kaushal Family
Partner ($150 - $999)
Dignity For All Program: A Quick Glance (A Joint Newsletter Between Crescent School and Havergal College) The Year In Review When Crescent School and Havergal College embarked on this campaign, we identified two key objectives – fundraise money to assist sponsorship groups in sponsoring Syrian families, and providing social & recreational support through sport and play. It is with great privilege that I report we accomplished both of these goals with great success! Our fundraising team were quick to reach their original fundraising target of $20,000. After passing their original target in January, they readjusted the goal to $50,000. The team was able to coordinate partners and the community to ultimately accomplish the revised goal, and help out financially in sponsorships of Syrian families. $5,000 of the fundraised total was received in the form of a scholarship pledge from the Royal Conservatory of Music, allowing Dignity For All to offer two aspiring musicians the opportunity to pursue musical education. Dignity For All welcomed refugees onto the campuses of Crescent School and Havergal College during two Saturdays in February. With a hospitable welcome team at each of the sessions, the events were well received by the refugees. The organizers frequently received comments about the engaging and enjoyable activities – conversational English, soccer, basketball, floor hockey, arts & crafts, board games, lego centre – offered to the 100+ refugees. In addition to accomplishing the two goals, the Dignity For All program also sent a team of students to Culture Link’s distribution centre in December to help sort items. The team was greeted with masses of clothing, appliances, toys, cookware and other personal belongings, and assisted in categorization. The success of the program could not have happened without all of those involved. We would like to thank our partners and community, notably the following people: Fundraising Team Newsletter Team
Welcome Team
Ryan Boyd
Selina Chow
Harrison Hui
Joseph Sumabat
Jack Williamson
Selina Chow Clare Morneau Stephen Abbott Vincent Cheng William Kang Alex Logan Jennie Morris Niki Sennik Summer Vilanez
Spencer Dale Angelina Pan Karen Au Sean Garner Charmaine Koo Andy Mavroudis Olivia Nadalini Elisa Shi Bryan Wong
William Gill Abigail Tien Jenny Bao Christian Gnam Keshiv Kaushal Sepand Mesgarzadeh Ameesha Paliwal Eric Song Erin Wong
Nathan Li Tyler Young Justin Chan Behshad Jahanpour Cassandra Lee Ryley Mehta Matt Parmar Tony Sun Mia Xing
Sabrina Mastroianni Sarah Zhao Kyle Chang Rohan Jain Jessie Liu Christian Metivier Katherine Ross Alp Turkmen Isabella Xu
Christian Metivier Ryan Cheng Kabir Kahlon Marcel Lui Cooper Midroni Alex Salom Cole Turner Helen Zhang
I would also like to thank my co-chair, Tyler Mark, as well as all of the faculty involved, notably Mr. Mehernosh Pestonji, Ms. Melanie Belore, Ms. Jennifer Russell and Mr. Gordon Grisé. - Ronald Chow, Student Chair
June 17, 2016
Issue 7
Dignity For All Program: A Quick Glance (A Joint Newsletter Between Crescent School and Havergal College) Our Fundraising Campaign To close out our campaign, we received a $5,000 contribution from Angus Systems, and also raised $2,059 from Crescent School’s final casual dress day of the year. The program surpassed our initial ($20,000) and revised ($50,000) goal, with $46,487 and another $5,000 worth of scholarship from the Royal Conservatory of Music. We would like to thank all of our partners, especially our Gold Partners of Home Trust, Royal Conservatory of Music and Angus Systems.
100%
90%
80%
We passed along $15,000 to COSTI Immigrant Services, and the remaining amount in $5,000 installments to Upper Beaches Lifeline Syria Group, Rosedale United Church Group (Rise Again), Welcome Project Canada, Fairlawn Avenue United Church, Fresh Tracks and ACTS Toronto.
70%
Once again, thank you to our partners and our community for supporting the Dignity For All program this year!
60%
- Selina Chow, Chief Financial Officer 50%
40%
Dignity For All Program 30%
Ronald Chow, Student Chair Mr. Mehernosh Pestonji, (Crescent School) Faculty Chair Mr. Gordon Grisé, (Havergal College) Faculty Chair Tyler Mark, Student Co-Chair
20%
Editorial Board of “Dignity For All Program: A Quick Glance” William Gill, Editor-In-Chief Spencer Dale, Associate Editor
Selina Chow, Editor-In-Chief Angelina Pan, Associate Editor
Our Fundraising Team Selina Chow, Chief Financial Officer Harrison Hui, Controller Jack Williamson, Financial Planner Ryan Boyd, Financial Planner Joseph Sumabat, Financial Planner June 17, 2016
10%
0%
Issue 7
Dignity For All Program: A Quick Glance (A Joint Newsletter Between Crescent School and Havergal College) The Impact of the Fund A portion of our fund was given to COSTI, a community-based multicultural agency providing educational, social, and employment services to help immigrants in Canada. Since its inception in 1952, COSTI has helped numerous immigrants, with over 39,000 individuals receiving assistance from COSTI last year. Operating from 17 locations in Toronto, York Region and Peel, COSTI provides services in more than 60 languages. These programs include ESL training, settlement services, post-settlement support, family counselling, and mental health services – just to name a few. In particular, COSTI’s Reception Centre offers an Art Therapy Program for refugee children. These traumatized children are provided with a lifeline: the opportunity to work through their pain and fear, along with a second chance at childhood. This program helps children to symbolically fulfill their impulses, as well as externalizing the difficult and overwhelming feelings that they experience. By drawing their past memories, these refugee children are able to project their trauma into their artwork and gain control over it, while maintaining a comfortable distance. This creative process provides the children a direct access to the difficulties that they have been suppressing. In addition to a $15,000 donation to COSTI Immigrant Service, our fund has assisted multiple families in their settlement using $5,000 installments. Below is a brief description of the consenting families we financially assisted. • Upper Beaches Lifeline Syria is helping settle a young Syrian couple and baby boy by focusing funds to pay rent, groceries, TTC passes, furniture and other living necessities, ultimately helping them begin a new life in Toronto • ACTS is supporting a family of four in Toronto, who arrived from Turkey in February 2016. We wish best health and prosperity to Yassar, Bayan, and their two children, Abdullah (3 years old) and Lin (5 years old) • Fairlawn Avenue United Church is helping a family of four – Siham, her 8 year old twins (Jana and Joudi) and her 22 year old daughter (Carmen) adjust to their new life. Since arriving in December 27, 2015, the twins have enrolled into Grade 3 and Carmen is in school preparing her English for admittance into a higher level educational institution. Siham is meanwhile preparing to enter the work force. They are all highly motivated to succeed in their new country! • Rise Again Team has been supporting the Suleyman Family of 6 – Ahmed and Iman, and four children named Rame (12 years old), Muhammed (7 years old), Osman (5 years old) and Aysha (2 years old). The lovely family arrived from Allepo via Turkey on June 1st, and are well on their way to setting up their new life! • “Fresh Tracks” is due to welcome their sponsored family of four from Oman, Jordan, in July. Amani (29 years old), Moua (35 years old), Yazan (7 years old) and Rimza (5 years old) will be joining their extended family in Mississauga, seeking a fresh start in Canada! The Dignity For All program proved to be a success beyond our wildest dreams this year. In addition to welcoming and interacting with refugees, our fund has been able to help out many groups involved with the Syrian refugee situation. Thank you for your never-ending support this year. - Ronald Chow (Student Chair) and Selina Chow (Chief Financial Officer) June 17, 2016 Issue 7