History of The Dam: Celebrating 10 Years of Ministry

For several years the founders of The Dam, Michael Clarke and Bill Crawford, worked on the inner-city streets of Toronto in one of the largest ministries to street youth in Canada, Yonge Street Mission's Evergreen Centre for Street Youth. This downtown drop-in centre saw 500 kids per week come through its doors. Research indicated that a significant percentage of the kids who became street youth in the inner city were not originally inner-city kids. As many as 60 to 80 per cent of them came from middle-class or better homes in the suburbs or small towns. Behind the four walls of their "normal-looking" suburban homes, these kids had suffered significant emotional, physical or sexual abuse, to the degree that they no longer felt safe in their own homes.

Mississauga is one of these sending communities.  Because of domestic problems in our suburban neighbourhoods it is "our" kids who are ending up on the streets of Toronto's core. In 1992, parishioners at Trinity Anglican Church Streetsville surveyed 35 local social service agencies. They found that "marginalized" youth were the neediest group in Mississauga and that their overwhelming need was for the rebuilding of damaged or non-existent self-worth. 

The experience of our outreach workers in the Meadowvale Town Centre shopping mall, working with a daily population of 500 kids who hung out there, confirmed these findings. We designed a ministry strategy to reach these kids before they get to the streets. The owners of Meadowvale Town Centre provided a low-rent space in the mall for The Dam to run a drop-in staffed with caring Christian volunteers from local churches and a team of trained, full-time outreach workers.

The drop-in opened July 3, 1995. Starting the first day, we were surprised at how many youth began calling the drop-in home. The original space was 1,350 sq. ft; it soon became too crowded for all of the youth that were coming. The mall generously provided additional space and The Dam was expanded to 10,000 sq. ft. space on December 8, 1998.

In the expanded space we were able to run different programs concurrently. Some of our programs included: lunch, after school and evening drop ins; movie nights; specialized workshops in art, drama, writing and music led by skilled professionals; seminars in drug and alcohol abuse; life skills training and coffee house-style concerts. Two alternative education programs were developed for youth in the community who had been kicked out of high school, but wanted to continue their education.

At any one time, there were up to 75 youth in the drop-in. Over the course of three programs during the day, more than 200 different youth came through the door, with a core of over 50 regulars who were present almost every time the doors were open.

On April 15th, 2002 we ran the last program out of our drop-in on the second floor of the Meadowvale Town Centre before that part of the mall was closed and demolished as part of a comprehensive redevelopment of the mall.

For the last three years, we have been operating programs from a number of different locations throughout the community. Many of our drop-in programs are at the Meadowvale West Church Centre. During the transition our focus has been on outreach and mentoring. In outreach, our teams connect with a large number of youth at many of the places youth hang-out. In mentoring, staff and volunteers encourage a more significant relationship with those who are ready and interested. Through outreach, we are making a wide impact in the lives of many in the community and, through mentoring, we are making a deep impact in the lives of a few.  Even without a space, The Dam continues to fulfill its mandate to be a positive Christian presence in the lives of youth and young moms in the community.

In July 2004, we moved into an office after two and a half years of running the ministry out of a basement. While still not a program space for youth, it was a step in the right direction.

For close to four years, we were without a dedicated drop-in space. It was the youth who were suffering as a result. Staff connected with youth whenever they went out, but it was the youth who couldn’t always connect with staff when they needed someone to talk to. Our youth need a safe place in the community where they can go to get out of or stay out of trouble. The Dam can provide that safe place where youth can hang-out and get the help they need when they need it.  

In January 2006, the drop-in moved into a 2,101 square foot space back at the Meadowvale Town Centre. With a new dedicated drop-in location, The Dam can once again provide a safe and welcoming community for youth at-risk that youth can access when they need it and find someone talk to when they need help. Currently, we are operating at least one program per day during the week and working on fixing up the space. New staff are being hired, new volunteers are being recruited and new funding is being sought after specifically for drop-in and the plan is to have a full schedule of programs starting in September.