“The work that came out of All People’s Church was trailblazing, the people saw a need in the community and figured out how to create solutions.”
It began in 1974 as the “Welland Community Resource and Action Centre” in the rooms of the All People’s United Church in Welland. The church was known for its radical community organizing movements. Reverend Robert Wright and his wife Nancy were passionate about community development and providing outreach for people in the community. Some people who attended the church were very involved in these outreach programs which is why as a recent drama studies graduate I was asked to create a play with youth in the neighborhood on the impacts of drug use. I didn’t know it then, but this first play was to be the beginning of the Niagara Regional Youth Home. It provided a ‘club house’ program for youth, somewhere safe they could go and get support.
In the 1960s industries in Welland began to close causing unemployment and poverty which led to an increase in family violence and addiction. There were limited social service programs in place – women, children, and youth were especially vulnerable. In 1974, we started gathering people in the community and coming together to engage and empower people with the purpose of finding solutions to the challenges they were facing. Little did we know that our efforts would create a ripple effect that would create multiple social service organizations, including the Welland Community Resource and Action Centre (WCRAC), which continues today as The Hope Centre.
We began with the youth program, and it organically grew to include women and newcomers. We held women’s meetings at the church and uncovered many social issues affecting the community – slum housing, family violence, and addictions were the big issues. We created a Housing Hotline – we put a phone number up at the church and invited people to contact us if they needed housing support. We started by creating an inventory of apartments available for rent and would go out to assess the apartments. This is when we noticed a lot of safety concerns. I will never forget assessing an apartment of a family (husband, wife and newborn baby), it was unsafe, there was a smell of gas and exposed electrical wiring, and I knew we had to move them quickly. But by the next day, the house had exploded, and the baby died, and the father was badly burnt trying to save his family. This was the impetus for the work that we did to create safe and affordable housing.
We started by researching how many slum housing units there were in the community, and we logged the issues we noticed. Around this time the Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program started, a federal program providing forgivable loans for necessary repairs to housing. This is when we began organizing meetings with the landlords and advocated for them to utilize this program to help fix the rental units. We also supported the tenants and gave them a voice to be able to speak up about the issues they were noticing.
We learned that the Federal government was offering funding to create Co-Op housing where “ordinary people could create their own housing”. In 1975 we received a federal government grant that provided a modest salary to hire someone to develop a Co-op Housing organization. Three of us decided to split the salary and dedicated countless hours in this endeavor. We formed the Welland Housing Co-Op, and began by purchasing and renovating homes, our first house was on First Street, “Cordage House.” After many challenges and difficult learnings, we successfully created Niagara Peninsula Homes in 1979 which still exists today. We evolved from one tiny idea … never in our wildest dreams would we have created 2,700 units of affordable and cooperative housing in Niagara and Hamilton, it has been an amazing journey.
1975 was a significant year for citizen-led change in our community. In addition to the housing solutions, we also created solutions that would protect the tenants that were experiencing landlord issues. This work resulted in the Niagara Legal Clinic that was established in 1978 and is still operating in downtown Welland.
During this time, we also began advocating for a women’s shelter in the community. Women were finding it difficult to leave abusive partners and they struggled to find employment that would help them regain their independence. A lack of childcare was a barrier for many women in finding a job. So, in 1977, we opened the All Peoples Day Care and made it free for women who needed it. Then in 1984, thanks to the hard work of a group of women, “Women’s Place” was created and provided a safe and supportive space for women and children experiencing domestic violence. Today it is called “Birchway Niagara” and they currently have a satellite office at The Hope Centre.
Looking back, I can see that the organizing efforts of this small group of concerned citizens at All Peoples Church began a true grassroots movement that created positive change in the community. We connected with like-minded people that were interested in helping and supporting our efforts. There was no structure or hierarchy, we were just a group of people who wanted to help our community and to give people hope that they could create something good.
The Welland Community Resource and Action Centre (WCRAC) was the birthplace for creating solutions to these social issues and resulted in the development of several non-profit organizations supporting the community with housing, legal support and a women’s shelter. WCRAC was a vital resource for the community, and we needed to ensure it remained so in 1980 we decided to incorporate as a non-profit organization.
Today WCRAC is known as The Hope Centre and continues to provide essential support services including Housing Help, Housing-Focused Shelter, Food Security, Counselling and more.