Celebrating LivingRoom
On July 15th, we celebrated Oasis’ Ontario Trillium Funded Peer-to-Peer program, LivingRoom. The afternoon was hosted at New Horizon Tower at Bloor and Dufferin, and gave us the opportunity to fête LivingRoom’s first year at Oasis, as well as give a round of applause to everyone who has been involved in our peer-to-peer programming since its inception.
Beginning in October 2022, LivingRoom has operated as a drop-in program at Oasis designed to build community and propel individuals towards personal success. Anyone is welcome to stop in for coffee, snacks, and good conversation from a supportive community. The program runs without judgement, and looks to support people on their individual journey’s by offering camaraderie, cross-pollination of ideas, and mutual support, no matter a person’s life story. One measurement of success? An empty chair. While the group is sad to lose a LivingRoom sibling at a meeting, everyone knows that the absence of each person means they’ve found a job, a school program, or another piece of the puzzle on their path. Since its launch, over 30 people have benefitted from LivingRoom’s program at Oasis.
Participants, organizers, volunteers, and local representative MPP Marit Stiles, gathered together for speeches and refreshments to celebrate and reflect on a year of success and growth, and to learn more about where the program is heading in the future. Everyone was also treated to a stunning performance by the stunningly talented Malaika Khadijaa, who sang three heart-felt songs about hope and healing.
LivingRoom program founder and coordinator Elliot Shulman spoke about the program’s inception, and how it has evolved and changed over the course of its past year at Oasis. “I have healed at Oasis, I have grown at Oasis, and I have learned at Oasis. This is the model we have to feed, we have to nurture, and we have to protect.”
The celebration included a panel with some of our LivingRoom participants, who spoke about how much the program has impacted their lives.”I came to understand that people had my back. And that’s something that I hadn’t experienced before in my life,” LivingRoom member Michael shared. Through each of their stories, it was evident how the the simple act of coming together, listening, and supporting each other has the power to change peoples’ minds, hearts, and their futures
Each of our LivingRoom siblings received a certificate marking their importance to the program’s success. The event concluded with a huge round of applause for all of the participants, and full hearts from everyone in the room.
As we look forward to the future of LivingRoom, we’re excited to share that we are expanding our hours in the fall from noon to 5 pm every Monday, and will be launching an art program open to anyone in our community. If you would like to learn more about LivingRoom, you can visit our page here, or reach out to Elliott at 647-717-6969 or email him here.
