St. John’s Kitchen and Outreach
An integrated web of supports
The Working Centre provides an integrated web of supports for people experiencing homelessness, addiction to street drugs, experiencing mental illness, and acquired brain injury, often focusing on those most left out of service and health care. We work to build relationships of trust and support access to services.
St. John’s Kitchen for 40 years has provided a free downtown nutritious meal every week day. It is a place where people come for a coffee, to meet friends and to connect to services. It is a place of welcome and friendships. It serves as an active hub and drop-in space, serving 300/day (2,000+ different people) providing food, water, washrooms, showers, laundry, problem-solving, access to healthcare, ABI supports, ID clinics, grief counselling, income support and more.
St. John’s Kitchen Clinic operates in partnership with Community Health Caring Kitchener offers a daily primary care clinic at St. John’s Kitchen, ensuring timely access to health care and preventing Emergency Department visits.
Many services are mobile and go where people are most comfortable. St. John’s Kitchen hosts a place-based hub within this web of outreach supports.
Street Outreach serves 2,000 providing community connectedness, problem-solving, accompaniment, improving access to services, connection to housing services, proactive care and responsiveness. We actively visit encampments to ensure well-being and support connections to services and resources. We problem-solve in our place-based hubs proactively connecting people to housing lists and other resources.
St. John’s Kitchen serves as an active hub and drop-in space, serving 400/day (2,000+ different people) providing food, water, washrooms, showers, laundry, problem-solving, access to healthcare, ABI supports, ID clinics, grief counselling, income support and more.
We actively support links to other Working Centre projects for financial empowerment and employment supports.
Working Centre Housing and Shelter supports are closely integrated with this outreach work as we help people to find shelter and housing.
All of these resources work proactively within the Housing and Homelessness System, Justice and Legal System, Hospital care, Mental Health and Addictions sector.
Access/referral to these resources vary, and is often relationship-based. See the individual pages on each project for more information. A good place to begin access is to visit St. John’s Kitchen.
