Stephanie Mancini

Developing A Social Medicine Hub

Joe Mancini June 5, 2026

Every day at St. John’s Kitchen we witness a drug crisis that continues to grow. We see sons and daughters, sisters and brothers lost to a drug trade that leaves lasting scars and horrific damage to body and psyche. We know it is a violation of human dignity and community solidarity. How can we respond to help reduce the level of poverty, the lack of connection, the lack of housing, the bitterness of being left to fight for one’s own survival?

Places of Inclusion

Stephanie Mancini March 1, 2026

Gathering in public spaces helps to build community and awareness of one another – in our similarities and our differences. The Mayors’ Dinner, now in its 37th year, is a public gathering that brings 900 people together annually, to celebrate commitment to the common good, to gather, and to support The Working Centre. At this year’s Mayors’ Dinner, we will highlight community endeavours that foster the habit of supporting public places.

Overnight Warming Centre at St. John’s Kitchen

Stephanie Mancini March 1, 2026

It has been an exceptionally cold and snowy winter, and the impact on this for many we support is significant. Those living in encampments, outside, or who are precariously housed, face significant risks to their health and well-being. St. John’s Kitchen has been a day-time refuge for people during this winter – a place to get respite from the cold, to enjoy a warm meal and coffee, and to connect with many community services in one central location. We are able to keep eyes and ears on people who are most vulnerable and help to buffer the effects of the harsh winter as we focus on wellness, connection, and belonging.

St. John’s Kitchen: A 40 Year Journey

Stephanie Mancini December 1, 2025

It has been a long journey since Wednesday October 31, 1984. That was the day, during a late afternoon meeting held by the Core Area Ministry Committee, when a decision was made to develop a downtown community meal service. The discussions that resulted in St. John’s Kitchen had been going on for more than a year. Churches and social services were recognizing that many people living in the downtown struggled to access a daily meal.

Hope Is A Choice

Stephanie Mancini September 1, 2025

Hope is a choice. Hope is a disciplined and spiritual practice that sustains our work. These do not feel like hopeful times as we witness the despair of people living without shelter or housing, as we receive the growing anxiety of people looking for work in a tightening labour market, as we witness the tightening of funding options and increasing administrative burdens

Knowing Our Neighbour

Stephanie Mancini March 1, 2025

This year’s Mayors’ Dinner theme, Knowing Our Neighbour, is about the positive social connections that engender dialogue and reciprocity. We all know the importance of neighbours. Can we become neighbourly people in the widest sense, can we strive to find positive ways to build community? The Dinner this year comes at a time when there is a discouragement for the divides that we see around us. Neighbourliness, the ability of people and groups to talk to each other, help each other out and learn from each other is a pathway to building community.

Closing King Street Shelter

Stephanie Mancini March 1, 2025

We are now one and half months from the closing of King Street Shelter. King Street Shelter has come out of a line of innovative and highly responsive approaches The Working Centre has brought to the dramatic increase in homelessness, combined with the opioid drug crisis. We have created a place of belonging where people come together in a congregate setting to share living every day.

Harden Not Our Hearts

Stephanie Mancini December 1, 2024

Driving through rural Ontario, it is not unusual to see signs with Christian messages surrounded by colourful leaves at this time of year. I was struck recently by one sign that read, “Harden not your heart”. As we were driving by this sign, we were also receiving updates from our shelter team that there were four overdoses happening at the same time.

Change Over Time

Stephanie Mancini September 20, 2024

We are starting to get ready for the Point in Time (PiT) count, which is a national coordinated effort to take a snapshot of how many people are experiencing homelessness in one night. It is important to recognize the many ways that homelessness is increasing in our communities, especially for people just trying to cope as best they can. Encampments demonstrate that we no longer have an effective social structure response to homelessness.

Standing in Solidarity with the Unsheltered and Unhoused

Stephanie Mancini December 1, 2023

Standing witness to the harshness of our world is painful and draws a deep lament – across the world, on the earth that sustains life, and in our own community. The lament is important, standing with eyes wide open as witness, and feeling the pain. If we don’t lament, this despair can turn into anger, into fear, or indifference.