97 Victoria Award
Making Home at 97 Victoria Receives Lieutenant Governor Award
The Working Centre is honoured to have received the Excellence in Conservation Award for the Making Home project at 97 Victoria St. N. in collaboration with Perimeter Development and BNKC Architects Inc.
As one of the 17 recipients of the heritage awards presented by Lieutenant Governor Edith Dumonth this year, the 97 Victoria Street project has been a work in progress since 2005. What used to be a former warehouse for the Mitchell Button Company now forms a core campus of The Working Centre, offering 44 supportive housing units, a new home for St. John’s Kitchen, and other services including a dental clinic and medical support.
The main goal of Making Home at 97 Victoria was to address growing homelessness, a reality we saw each day at St. John’s Kitchen. This newly-reenvisioned site is designed to assist people with the transition to housing and to create supports towards developing social stability. Those dealing with long periods of homelessness often face a journey working through the dislocation of mental health and addiction issues.
As the Ontario Heritage Trust quoted 97 Victoria, “serves vulnerable populations while celebrating the physical characteristics found in the built heritage landscape of downtown Kitchener’s warehouse district serving as a leading example of heritage conservation and community impact working hand in hand.”
We are grateful to be able to recognize the hundreds of people and organizations that have contributed time, money, resources and skills to help make this important community resource a success.
The full article can be read on The Record’s website.