Welcome Inn Community Centre

When it comes to community development, Professor Nabeel Hamdi is a recognized leader. He is the Emeritus Professor of Housing and Urban Development at Oxford Brookes University, and he's won the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour for his work on Community Action Planning. In his book Small Change, he wrote:

"In order to do something big—to think globally and act globally—one starts with something small and one starts where it counts. [Good development practice] is about making the ordinary special and the special more widely accessible. It is about building densely interconnected networks, crafting linkages between unlikely partners and organizations, and making plans without the usual preponderance of planning. It is about getting it right for now and at the same time being tactical and strategic about later.”

When it comes to community development, Welcome Inn also believes its important to start small and make the ordinary special. There's not a lot of pomp and circumstance around our Diners Club or our food bank or our peer support groups--just ordinary people, sharing ordinary lives together. BUT, linkages are being created and our programs do get it right for now, fostering a sense of belonging for so many individuals. We believe that small change, in our local communities, could bring about substantial change in our world, AND we believe that it is ordinary, everyday community members who will create the kind of place that we all want to share in together. Place-making begins small, and it involves all of us.

Another practitioner, Nupur Chaudhury, put it this way: "We work at the invitation of residents, with the understanding that they have a deep understanding not only of the problems facing the community, but of the best solutions."

Graduating grade 8 this year? Need high school volunteer hours? Spend some time this summer having fun swimming, making crafts and playing with kids. Volunteer at Welcome Inn’s summer day camp!
Make memories and meet new friends while earning volunteer hours.
For more information contact Michelle at [email protected]

#2026

This older gentleman never wears anything but a simple pair of jeans.

I have to be careful not to say too much about him. He's always wanted to remain anonymous and support Welcome Inn in his own quiet way. Put simply, though, I have never seen generosity more humbly embodied. His cash donations started in 2020, and he continues to walk to Welcome Inn to this day.

Welcome Inn has never named any of its rooms, and I'm not suggesting that we are going to start doing so. BUT, if we were to ever name a room after a donor, I would like to pay tribute to all those who give what they can and do so with quiet faithfulness. There are many of them.
--Jamie VanderBerg, Interim Executive Director

Donations come in all shapes and sizes, and each one matters to an organization like Welcome Inn!