Trefann Short Term Community

Publisher:  Trefann Short Term Community, Toronto, Canada
Year Published:  1981
Pages:  2pp   Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX2240

Trefann Short Term Community grew out of the needs of some skid-row men leaving St. Michael's Detoxification Center.

Abstract: 
Trefann Short Term Community grew out of the needs of some skid-row men leaving St. Michael's Detoxification Center. They expressed a desire to change their lifestyle but their efforts were often frustrated by long waiting lists of social service agencies, line-ups for welfare and profit-oriented temporary help offices. To support the men in their option for change, Trefann opened February 2, 1981, in co-operation with the Anchor person Project (a project that hires skid-row men who have achieved some stability and who have achieved some stability and who support and act as an advocate for men living on the row) and the Co-ordinating Committee of the Single Displaced Persons Project (a group of front-line staff from a number of different agencies who are attempting to co-ordinate their efforts in the interest of the single displaced men they work with).
The motivation and empowerment begun at the Detox level continues trough the part-time participation of the staff who want to listen and learn from the men living at Trefann. At present, these men who stay and work on their short-term goals and co-operative living, seem to be from the cross-section of skid-row men who have been through the 'circuit' of alcohol recovery homes and who are frequently intimidated by the 'filling out" of forms.

Some of the goals of the community include 1) a pooling of financial, physical and spiritual resources to maintain the house; 2) translating social agency jargon; 3) aiding them to take ownership for some of their legal, medical and financial rights; 4) linking up with the people that run social service agencies; 5) peer support and challenge within the short-term community and after they leave.

The staff want to engage in on-going action and reflection for the empowerment of the men and of themselves as they learn how to change staff attitudes and enable interaction among the skid-row population. Presently, the men and some of the staff are getting together for a strategy to approach City Hall officials about the proposed rent increase for low-cost housing.