In the spirit of the 2010 Christmas season and in lieu of RadonicRodgers’ annual gala, the senior partners, Edward Radonic and Ross Rodgers, have made a donation in honour of our clients, suppliers and associates, to Sanctuary Ministries Toronto, a community outreach centre, that brings hope, value and purpose to those less fortunate in Toronto’s downtown area. Founder and director, Greg Paul (pictured above), makes the statement applicable to every one of us, “We don’t do well in isolation” and to this end Sanctuary provides community of belonging particularly for the hurting people of Toronto’s downtown district.

From arts programs to worship, drop-ins and health clinics, employment training to street outreach, Sanctuary is a place that many can call “home” when a place of their own is either virtually or really non-existent.

Since 1992, the outreach has been operating out of the historically-significant 100-year-old church building once known as Central Gospel Hall. As a “phoenix-out-of-the-ashes” type reformation, having become too small and too elderly to continue, the previous congregation met to worship for the last time in this funky old church in downtown Toronto, while the birth of Sanctuary took hold.

Ross Rodgers, Partner of RadonicRodgers, says “As a member of the previous congregation in the old Central Gospel Hall, I was excited to see Greg Paul and others ‘accept the baton’ for continuing the building’s use for outreach in a way that had profound relevancy for that area of Toronto. It was really exciting to observe vision take shape as Sanctuary strove to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the community”.

Since then, the building near Yonge and Bloor, was acquired by Sanctuary Ministries Toronto. The centre is now a focus of street-level outreach research groups and individuals interested in becoming educated about street-level community services.

For more information about Sanctuary Ministries Toronto: www.sanctuarytoronto.ca