We are excited to put our names forward to join the Juke Box Heroes challenge to raise funds for CCRC (Community Counselling and Resource Centre). All funds raised will go toward preventing homelessness and supporting other services of CCRC.

We chose to focus our team's donations toward CCRC's Housing Resource Centre, which helps people who are experiencing housing instability, because of our connection and interest in housing issues. Funds raised through Juke Box heroes will go to support people like Rhonda.

Rhonda was a sweet elderly woman who came into CCRC several times a week to use the resource room to online house hunt. Rhonda had trouble figuring out how to search on Kijiji, and wasn’t having luck using CCRC’s housing listings. The staff helped Rhonda navigate Kijiji and offered to set up a short intake meeting to see if they could help her further, but each day she refused. After weeks of Rhonda returning to the resource room, a staff member asked her “so, you are looking to move to a new place?” and Rhonda broke into tears and told the staff member her story.

Her current landlord was selling the house and she was being forced to move. She had lived in the house for a long time and was overwhelmed with the prospect of moving. Rhonda was also on a fixed income and with the dramatic increases to the cost of rent, she wasn't sure how she was going to manage to pay first and last month’s rent with a higher monthly cost. The staff member once again suggested she set up a meeting with one of CCRC’s Housing Intake workers who could help her find a solution, and she finally agreed.

Through her meeting with the housing intake worker, Rhonda was not only able to secure a new place to live, but also found out that she was not receiving all of the Old Age Security benefits she was eligible for. Even with this increased monthly income, rent prices had gone up so exponentially that the long-term affordability was going to be a struggle. CCRC staff helped Rhonda gain access to one-time funding to pay her last month’s rent as well as get her a rent subsidy to bring the monthly costs down to a payment she could afford. With this support Rhonda was able to move into her new place, confident that she could afford her rent over the long term.

*Names and story details have been changed to maintain anonymity of CCRC Clients*

Please sponsor us to help us reach our goal by Friday, April 27th, when we hope to win the title of Juke Box Heroes!

*All donations will receive a charitable tax receipt from CCRC*