LOFT Community Services: Giant Leap Campaign

Everyone deserves a life of health, hope and dignity. But it’s not a reality for everyone.

LOFT is redefining health and bridging inequities in care for those who need it most. You can help.

Denise’s experience of abuse came to light when a caring acquaintance noticed the impact on her physical and mental well-being. This left her with nowhere else to turn for a safe and supportive place to live.

With complex mental health challenges, Savvoi was referred to LOFT’s transitional housing program for youth by Children’s Aid Society of Toronto in February 2022.

Christine spent most of her adult life in and out of hospitals, addressing complex physical and mental health concerns, including borderline personality disorder, schizoaffective disorder and chronic pain making it almost impossible to maintain stable housing.

Gaps

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Ontario’s systems of care are letting the people we love fall through the cracks.

Fortunately for Denise, Savvoi and Christine, LOFT Community Services was there to offer help and hope. For more than 70 years, LOFT has been identifying the inequities in our health and social systems of care, innovating novel solutions and scaling them up to give more people with complex challenges and nowhere to turn the lives they deserve. As one of Ontario’s largest community service providers, we adopt a uniquely big picture approach to health, delivering personalized supports that address physical and mental health challenges along with their root social causes, from poverty and food insecurity to homelessness and social isolation.

Together with our donors and health and community partners, we are changing lives and catalyzing systemwide changes that are improving efficiencies and creating healthier communities for all.

IN 2023-24

19,878 youth, adults and seniors served

1,882 transitional and long-term care beds over 30 sites

487 clients transitioned from hospital to community or long-term care

Leading change where no one else can.

LOFT is a leader in bridging the gaps in holistic care and support across Toronto, York Region and Simcoe/Muskoka.

Hardest to serve

LOFT supports those the traditional systems of care leave behind: youth, adults and seniors with complex physical and mental health concerns exasperated by addiction, behavioural challenges, dementia and social determinants of health such as homelessness and food insecurity.

A collaborative effort

We fill unmet health and social service sector needs by pioneering solutions and collaborating with more than 50 partner hospitals and community agencies.

Housing first

Safe and affordable housing is the foundation of everything we do. Once a client’s basic needs are met, we support and empower them to maintain their housing and change the direction of their lives.

Innovative solutions

LOFT takes calculated risks and innovates to deliver practical, scalable solutions.

Identify urgent cracks in the system of care.

Bring together health and community partners to identify and deliver innovative solutions seeded by philanthropy.

Scale up our innovations and personalize them to address each client’s unique needs.

Leverage our impacts to attract sustainable government support and drive change system-wide.

DONALD CHRIS JAD

MARIA

LOFT’s innovations are giving people back their lives.

Keeping people out of hospital

Responding to the acute care bed shortage in Toronto’s hospitals, LOFT leveraged donor funding to open its first 24/7 supportive care house for people with complex care needs in 1994. Supported by the government and our hospital and community partners, we now have 1,882 transitional and longterm units of supportive housing over 30 sites.

OUR IMPACT

At Bradford House for 11 years, Denise has benefited from a unique mix of customized support. While she currently faces new physical health challenges, she remains confident that she has a wonderful partner in LOFT to help navigate this new chapter.

Diagnosing mental illness earlier

Youth with mental health and addiction challenges have multiple pathways to recovery-focused care thanks to LOFT’s Transitional Age Youth Housing Services; a Youth Community Care Centre offering free, walk-in assessments and treatment, along with education, career and housing support; and a donor-funded Campus Mental Health Program for Toronto university students.

OUR IMPACT

At LOFT, Savvoi found a stable place to call his own where he could focus on his mental health. In October 2022, Savvoi graduated from LOFT, living independently and pursuing his education. LOFT staff continue to support him on his journey.

Providing a place to call home

In 2006, LOFT created an outreach program to help individuals who are homeless and in need of health, mental health and/or addiction care. Thanks to a new pilot project with the City of Toronto and the Toronto Transit Commission, we recently expanded our services to give people sheltering within the TTC access to long-term housing, food and essential care.

OUR IMPACT

No longer facing re-admissions to the hospital for immediate health concerns, Christine has experienced fewer episodes that push people away and feels empowered in navigating her mental health journey.

Nearly 20,000 people a year benefit from LOFT’s services.

Too many more are still being left behind.

Our unique lens on the front lines of care has revealed a sobering reality: The gaps and inequities in Ontario’s systems of health and social care are continuing to grow. Countless people in our community are still facing barriers to health, hope and dignity.

SESSAN

YVONNE

ANGIE

Our population is growing and aging, and people are living longer with complex physical and mental health challenges.

Twenty percent of Ontario seniors over the age of 80 have complex care needs, but the waitlist for long-term care tops 43,000—double that of 10 years ago. By 2029, it’s estimated that Ontario will need 30,000 new longterm care spaces to serve our aging population.

Ontario is in the grips of a mental health crisis.

One in two people will have or have had a mental illness by the time they reach age 40, putting them at greater risk of long-term medical conditions. Yet funding to prevent and treat mental illness and addictions only accounts for seven percent of the province’s healthcare dollars.

There’s an urgent lack of affordable housing in Toronto, York Region and Simcoe/Muskoka.

An estimated 11,000 Torontonians are homeless, 170 people are turned away nightly from local shelters and the wait list for adult social housing is 10 to 15 years long, putting even more people at risk of homelessness and mental and physical illness.

BILL

KAHDIJAH

DONALD

It’s time to take

LOFT is a system change leader on the precipice of a powerful, untapped opportunity to close the gaps and make health and social care more accessible for all.

We launched the $30 million Giant Leap Campaign in 2020 to seed our newest health solutions and scale up LOFT’s existing innovations to meet growing need. Our bold strategy has already galvanized more than $15 million in community support. One vital ingredient is still required to help us take our next giant leap: YOUR SUPPORT.

take a giant leap.

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No place like home

Your investment will help build a new supportive care residence for seniors, and upgrade and expand our aging housing facilities to meet modern standards of care.

A lifeline for at-risk youth

More 24/7 housing for at-risk youth and expansions to LOFT’s Youth Community Care Centre and Campus Mental Health Program will help bridge the gaps for our youngest clients.

Building skills and enriching lives

Gifts will help LOFT meet our clients’ most basic needs and prepare for a healthier future.

Now under construction, the six storey, 4,380 square-metre Bradford House is LOFT’s first 24/7 supportive care residence custom-designed and built to ensure the physical and mental well-being of seniors with complex needs.

Experts in behavioural health, harm reduction, trauma-informed care and Indigenous health all contributed to the building’s innovative design.

Each of the 99 light-filled private suites will feature an ensuite washroom, kitchenette and living area where residents can host family and guests.

30 percent of the units will be barrier-free with larger doors and hallways, wheelchairheight counters and barrier-free washrooms.

The expandable dining room will accommodate all 99 residents and their guests at once.

Each floor will include a resident lounge, a wellness room, outdoor gardens and multi-floor terraces.

Two outdoor gardens on either side of the lobby will provide a comfortable and secure place for residents to socialize and relax.

Residents using mobility aids will have a separate entrance with accessible parking and electrical charging ports.

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No place like home

$15 million

Many of LOFT’s properties were built more than 70 years ago, before the modern standards of accessibility, privacy and safety. Your investments in our urgent capital priority will help increase capacity, reduce the wait list for affordable housing and ensure our most vulnerable clients have a place to call home.

Build a new home for at-risk seniors:

$5 million Bradford House has operated as a LOFT supportive care home for 46 seniors at risk of homelessness since 2012. But parts of the building are 100 years old and the property is ill equipped to meet the needs of the town’s growing seniors population, which is expected to increase 41 per cent over the next 20 years.

LOFT’s solution is to double capacity with a new Bradford House constructed on a neighbouring property donated by the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury. LOFT’s organizational investment and a $5 million philanthropic commitment from business and community leaders will send an important message to the Ontario Ministry of Health and other partners – that we have what it takes to transform the system of care for Ontario’s most vulnerable.

Repair and upgrade LOFT housing:

$10 million

As the housing-affordability crisis deepens, LOFT is committed to keeping rents as low as possible for the at-risk people we serve. While we’re proud of this commitment, it means we’re unable to tap revenues to make critical improvements to our buildings, some of which haven’t been updated in 40 years. Your generous support will provide LOFT with the ability to address urgent capital needs quickly and seamlessly.

A lifeline for at-risk youth

$8.5 million 2

Youth are more likely to experience mental illness than any other age group and the gaps in care are widening –about 28,000 are awaiting treatment in Ontario alone.

24/7 high support housing:

$4 million

Your gift will help LOFT open a new high support residence with 24/7 wraparound services to keep seriously ill young people out of hospital, off the street and on the road to recovery.

Youth community care centre expansion:

$3 million Approximately 700 youth a year benefit from the drop-in mental health services at LOFT’s Youth Community Care Centre. A new site will more than double our reach.

Campus mental health program:

$1.5 million

Donor funding is urgently needed to sustain and grow LOFT’s groundbreaking partnership with the University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University offering mental health, addiction and social support services to students in crisis.

Building skills and enriching lives

$6.5 million 3

It’s hard to have hope when you’re cold, hungry and alone. You can help LOFT deliver the basic needs and skills our clients need to focus on their recovery and live with health and dignity.

Basic needs and emergency support:

$4.5 million

Thanks to you, LOFT will have the capacity to respond quickly to unexpected client challenges, including food insecurity, disconnected utilities, transportation and clothing.

Life enrichment programs:

$2 million

Investments in LOFT’s enrichment programs, from yoga and cooking to financial literacy and vocational training, will give more clients in every supportive care home critical life skills and wellness strategies.

“At LOFT, we carry people’s hope until they take it back because they are ready to carry it themselves.”

— Debra Walko, Vice President, Client Care and Experience

NAYNA

Let’s take a giant leap together.

LOFT Community Services has never been afraid to leap. We stare into the cracks of our healthcare system and offer innovative solutions to help thousands of people with mental illness, addiction, homelessness and dementia emerge from the darkness and access the care they need and deserve. Each leap of faith is high risk, but also high reward. We’re delivering health and hope where there otherwise is none.

You can help make this possible for even more people in our community. Nothing transformative ever comes by innovating alone.

Let’s take a giant leap together.

Help us carry hope. For additional information, please contact:

President,