The John Howard Society of Toronto presented their new Reintegration Centre recently with an Open House and barbeque event. Officially opened in November, the Centre aims to help individuals who are released from the new Toronto South Detention Centre, located across the street, to better reintegrate back into the community. Toronto South is a male correctional facility that can hold over 1,600 inmates and will release approximately 180 men each week once the facility is at capacity. The Reintegration Centre is the first of its kind in North America and provides a variety of services and referrals from community partners across Toronto. The services include community accompaniment, housing support, “warm” referrals and mental health support. In addition to the John Howard Society of Toronto who provide overall coordination of the Centre, the African Canadian Legal Clinic, Cota Health, F.E.A.T., F.R.E.S.H. Youth Collective, LAMP Community Health Centre and Margaret’s Housing and Community Support Services are all supporting partners. The Centre also has a strong focus on peer-support with workers that have lived-experience of being incarcerated who are ready to talk to those who are just coming out of jail.

The Open House began with an Aboriginal prayer and few words from the John Howard Society of Toronto. Visitors were invited to explore the building and talk to the different partnering organizations. This was followed by a panel discussion that included community partners as well as Andrew Hall, a person with lived experience of mental health and addictions issues as well as poverty and who had been released from the detention centre. Hall spoke highly of the Reintegration Centre. “It will really help a lot of people that don’t have much, like myself, ” Hall told the Toronto Star.
The Honourable Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, the Honourable Yasir Naqvi, was also present and participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony. He said that the Reintegration Centre will support individuals to be meaningfully reintegrated back into the community and that it can serve as a model that can be replicated elsewhere in Ontario.
To learn more about the Reintegration Centre’s peer support model, visit the Toronto Star website.