The Link Between Housing and Mental Health
At The Access Centre, we see every day how stable housing changes lives. A safe place to call home isn’t just about having a roof over your head. It’s about having a foundation for hope, healing, and well-being. Albert (name changed for privacy) came to the Access Centre with no connections to friends, family, or […]
Success Story: Community Advocacy
Written by Donna Ashcroft and Brittney Taylor, Oliver Community Advocates “Adrian was faced with mental and physical health issues & a housing crisis, and he contacted our outreach office at The Access Centre for support. The most urgent issue was a landlord dispute & legal advocacy to not lose his RV pad rental. Due to […]
Success Story: Family Law Program
Written by David Desautels, Family Law Advocate ** names have been changed to protect privacy** Maria is married to Floyd, and they have two boys under 12 years old. Maria and Floyd had a good marriage until Floyd became aggressive and started to act erratically. It came to a point where Maria no longer felt […]
Success Story: Poverty Law Program
Written by Keleah Strack – Poverty Law Advocate “We had a family who was served a 2-month eviction notice for landlord use of property. The landlord claimed that she needed the tenants to vacate because she wanted to move into the tenant’s rental property. The family scrambled to find a new place, put their belongings […]
Access Centre Success Stories
A person who we serve (PWS) came to Access as a drop-in in June 2021 with a large list of barriers and needs. Housing insecurity, language barriers, food insecurity, tenancy issues, legal concerns; without knowing the level of support they were on, or how to navigate complicated systems. This individual had active suicidal ideation, homicidal […]
This Toronto doctor helps people get more money to improve their health
By Leslie Young Global News Posted May 19, 2019 6:00 am A few years ago, a woman came in to see Dr. Gary Bloch at his family medicine clinic in Toronto. She had “just terribly, terribly controlled diabetes,” he said. “Her blood sugar was literally through the roof, for many reasons. “She ate terribly. But she ate […]
Tax Volunteers for the Win
Here at the Access Centre, we offer FREE tax filing help and we are currently gearing up for this upcoming tax season. Though Revenue Canada is closed for E-filing this month, starting March 2nd and through March and April we will be in full force tax filing mode! Before the start of this busy tax […]
Employment Severance Dispute
A client came in stating he had been dismissed from his employment. The employer had given our client a small severance settlement. He had been there for 20 years. We advised our client not to sign the full and final settlement agreement employer had prepared. After some research by our law student, we believed our […]
Housing Success Story
Issue Our client came to us with a notice to attend a Residential Tenancy Branch Arbitration Hearing. The client’s only source of income was Persons With Disability (PWD) benefits from the Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation (Welfare). Action We attended the hearing with our client and were able to negotiate a suitable move out […]