Bellwoods Centres is a dynamic leader in the integration and delivery of independent living services for adults with physical disabilites in the community.
Mission Statement
Bellwoods
Centres' provides community support to enable adults with physical disabilities to live as independently as possible.
Values
client focused needs based quality services
community partnerships and collaboration
visionary leadership
safety and wellness focused environment
fiscal responsibility
Membership and Donations
People with disabilities depend upon our services and we count on your support. For a $5.00 annual contribution you can become a member of Bellwoods Centres for Community Living. Membership includes:
participation and voting privileges at our Annual General Meeting
the Community Report, published annually
the Bellwoods Centres News newsletter
invitations and updates to our social events and activities
a registered charity tax receipt
Download our application form to become a Bellwoods' member or make a charitable donation
Alteratively you may make a charitable donation online at CanadaHelps.org
Board of Directors
Bellwoods Centres' voluntary Board of Directors is drawn from the community, including our clients. Annual elections are held each year to fill vacancies. For further information, you may contact us at 416-696-9663.
Bellwoods Centres for Community Living began as an idea in 1948 with the Adult Cerebral Palsy Association. What began as a club for the purpose of social contact evolved under the leadership
of Muriel Heyland and Dr. Harold Cranfield
into the Adult Cerebral Palsy Institute of Metropolitan Toronto,
founded
in 1957. The association established the very first residence
for women with cerebral palsy at 718 Kingston
Road in February, 1959.
The
tremendous success of this project lead to the building
of a much larger, more comprehensive facility, Bellwoods
Park House, in 1967. At the time of
the opening, the slogan, "My own life to lead under
my own roof ", was
adopted.
With the new independent
living movement initiated with the Year of the Disabled in
1981, many new projects were opened. New programs provided
the physically disabled with the opportunity to be participating
members of the community.
Bellwoods
Park House, located at 300 Shaw Street, Toronto, is
an apartment setting with 32 accessible units, 14
of these now devoted to our TransitionalLiving
Program. This
program
offers intensive training in activities of daily living and
life skills, through the use of goal setting to prepare people
with physical disabilites for independent living in the community.
Twenty-four hour support services are available in the building
and the anticipated length of the program is 12 to 18 months.
In
1983, Bellwoods Centres established a new Co-operative
Living Project for 12 adults with
multiple disabilities at 389 Church
Street.
It is a shared living environment and includes bedroom units,
shared bathrooms and kitchens, and a community center lounge
equipped for wheelchair access. Clients are provided with 24
hour support services.
In
May 1985, Bellwoods began an Outreach program,
the first of its kind in the Toronto area. This program provides
support services for people with physical disabilities
living in the community who require one to four hours of care
daily. All clients live in the greater Toronto area direct
their own service needs.
In
June 1989, Bellwoods opened an integrated apartment project,
the BellwoodsMimico
Apartment Project, located at 1 Summerhill
Road, Etobicoke. This integrated apartment project provides
24 hour support services to 12 people with disabilities
who have the skills to identify and schedule their own support
services.
In July 2008, Bellwoods Centres began to accept new service clients at its newly constructed, thirty-one unit, four-storey apartment complex at 1082 Dundas Street West, Toronto. All thirty-one fully accessible and affordable units were filled by the end of the year.
In April 2009, Bellwoods opened the Community Connect Program, dedicated to helping alternate-level-of-care (ALC) hospital patients to transition to the community.
In January 2010, Bellwoods consolidated its many project based client service programs to enable programming to be carried out jointly by Program Facilitators (trained as occupational therapists) and Independent Living Coordinators at the organizational level.
