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New Year; New Events with the Mix and More!

Ready to kick off 2025 with fun, excitement and endless possibilities? 

Join us at The Mix and More Events starting this January for an amazing lineup of activities across the city where you can hit the dance floor, sing your heart out or simply enjoy a lively atmosphere. 

Entry is $7.

We encourage you to register in advance at mycommunityhub.ca. Cash at the door is accepted, however, pre-registration is preferred. 

Check out the attached flyer for a full list of upcoming events. 

Don’t forget to invite your friends! It’s going to be a blast! 🎉

Should you have any questions, please connect with Community Participation Supports at cps@cltoronto.ca or 647-729-2976.

Can’t wait to see you at the Mix!

March Break Overnite Camp

Monday March 10th to Friday 14th, 2025

This is a funded overnight camp for children who have a diagnosis of Intellectual Disability. This unique camp opportunity is available for children ages 7 to 17 who would like to try an overnight camp for the first time. The camp will be 5 days and 4 nights. Staffing ratio to child is 1:2 and children must reside with family in Toronto.

Activities Include

  • Sports: Hockey, basketball,
  • soccer, etc
  • Dress up, build forts, indoor
  • co-operative games
  • Music and dance parties
  • Fitness and wellness
  • Arts and crafts: Painting,
  • coloring, beading, tie-dye, etc
  • Playing board games
  • Reading books
  • Nature walks
  • Scavenger hunts
  • Campfires
  • Watching movies
  • Tobogganing and winter activities (weather permitting)

Fee

$150.00
*Limited subsidized spaces are available, please apply soon!

How to Apply 

To apply or get more information on subsidy, please contact: Adrineh Bennett at
abennett@cltoronto.ca or 647.729.0450

See flyer for more details

New Year, New Opportunities – Caregiver Support

Hello and Happy 2025! I hope you enjoyed a restful holiday. 

We have lots of great opportunities to engage and support caregivers coming up this Winter. I’ve provided a quick summary below, and promotional flyers are attached. Please have a read through and share widely with your clients and network. 

Information & Education Sessions for Caregivers

Registered Caregiver Programs

Supporting Caregiver Awareness, Learning and Empowerment (SCALE) Program is back for the Winter 2025! This 8-week program aims to nurture mental health and wellness for caregivers by providing weekly psychoeducational webinars, as well as free online or individual counselling (optional).    

  • English runs Tuesday, February 4 to March 25
  • French runs Thursday, February 6 to March 27

See flyer for more details

Resource Highlight

We are happy to share that the I Am A Caregiver toolkit is now available in multiple languages and adaptations. You can download the toolkits from our website and distribute to caregivers/your clients as you see fit. 

More specifically, you can find each adaptation as follows:

We are extremely grateful for our community partners that assisted with this project. 

Community Engagement Speaker Series: MyJobMatch

MyJobMatch Play video

Each month, CLTO’s Community Engagement Speaker Series highlights different topics of interest, providing education and information to individuals with disabilities, families, caregivers, and the community at large.

This month, we are pleased to announce an insightful session from MyJobMatch. MyJobMatch is a service created for employers, job seekers with a disability, and employment support professionals to come together to track, match, and secure meaningful job opportunities.

The SHIFT – Holistic and Intersectional Harm Reduction Services for People with Intellectual Disabilities

The SHIFT Play video

 PRESENTER: Jill Faber is currently a Director with Community Living North Bay and has been working in Developmental Services since 1990. Jill also had the fortune of spending many years working with Helen Sanderson Associates and Alliance Information Management Systems across Ontario. For the past 9 years she was working in the North Eastern part of Ontario as a regional Case Manager for people that have been often forgotten or failed by services and systems. 

A group of like minded people came together in North Eastern Ontario to try and find solutions to the complexity and lack of services for people in our community with intellectual disabilities whom are already significantly marginalized and at risk due to addictions, poverty, intergenerational trauma, gender and race. THE SHIFT is a harm reduction focused resource for the developmental services sector. It is built around the person-centred, “Do Nothing about Us, Without Us” philosophy and is focused on non-judgement and inclusive care that is culturally sensitive, evidence-based, accessible and more than anything, individual-led and based on incremental gains. 

Resources

Transition Planning for Youth with Intellectual Disabilities

Transition Planning for Youth with Intelectual Disabilities Play video

PRESENTERS: 

Megan Henze, Transitional Services Facilitator, Surrey Place

Angie Gonzales, is a Nurse Professional Practice Lead and Clinical Nurse Specialist at Surrey Place. She provides nursing consultation care with Surrey Place’s Plus 45 clinical team. She is currently also part of ECHO Ontario Adult Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities program.

Participants will be able to:

  • Understand approaches and opportunities for promoting decision-making capabilities in supporting persons with intellectual/developmental disabilities’ (IDD) transitioning from pediatric to adult health care.
  • Discuss higher prevalence issues for Transition-Age Youth with IDD, e.g.,
    • Mental health
    • Sexual health

Consider examples of tools for optimizing transition support:

  • SHARE Transition Plan Tool
  • My Hospital Form
  • New DD Primary Care Program Mental Health Toolkit

Recorded at the Shared Learning Forum – April 26, 2024

Download a PDF of the presentation

Respecting Rights with Arch Disability Law Centre

Respecting Rights with Arch DIsability Law Centre Play video

Since 2011, Respecting Rights has provided innovative, accessible rights education to persons labeled with intellectual disabilities

PRESENTER: Jessica Field Education and Outreach Coordinator and a member from the Respecting Rights self-advocate team.

Respecting Rights is a project at ARCH Disability Law Centre that is led by self-advocates labeled with intellectual disabilities. Since 2011, Respecting Rights has provided innovative, accessible rights education to persons labeled with intellectual disabilities and their support networks across Ontario. Respecting Rights also works on accessible law reform projects. Our work builds the capacity of persons labeled with intellectual disabilities through education and support for self-advocacy.

Respecting Rights hosts monthly and quarterly self-advocates meetings, and collaborates with Developmental Service agencies to offer legal rights education workshops to the people they support. Webinar participants will have an opportunity to learn about the work that Respecting Rights does, why this work is important, and how the people they support can become involved.

Recorded at the Shared Learning Forum – February 23, 2024

Download a PDF of the presentation

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