Autoshare at the Robertson

Have you noticed that cute yellow Mini Cooper parked beside Dreams (Suite 105)? It's one of two Autoshare cars parked on Urbanspace properties. Our Autoshare cars have been very popular with each vehicle being used an average of eight hours a day - that's above Autoshare's fleet average!

If you haven't already explored this great service visit www.autoshare.com to learn more.

Car sharing is a concept that supports several environmental initiatives, not the least of which is to reduce the volume of air contaminants, particulates, and congestion produced in the downtown area. For over eight years, car sharing has been gaining popularity in the City of Toronto as a result of Autoshare's strong business sense and its appeal to citizens looking for transportation alternatives.

Tenants of the Robertson Building get royal treatment at Autoshare with membership fees automatically waived for new corporate members. Autoshare then provides 24/7 access to clean, modern cars at over sixty locations across the city. The average cost of Autoshare is about $6 an hour, including gas and insurance.

Car locations include 215 Spadina and 401 Richmond St. W., as well as several vehicles at Mountain Equipment Cooperative (MEC) including a SMART car.

We hope that you find this addition to our community convenient. You can join Autoshare online and begin driving within days. All you need is a full class "G" license, and a clean driving record. The process goes something like this! Join - Reserve - Drive - Pay Monthly.

At the end of each month, you will receive an itemized bill for the time and distance you've driven. You are never charged extra for gas, insurance, or maintenance - imagine that. Happy Driving!

Equita's Chocolate Fix

There's nothing like the promise of chocolate to lure folks from their offices and it worked like a charm on July 26 when many Robertson Building tenants made their way to the ground floor to taste a sample of some of Equita's (Suite 200) tasty fair trade products. Equita's Suresh Tumkur, who was on hand to answer questions, introduced Oxfam's fair trade wares to the building community and offered an opportunity for tenants to take some coffee and chocolate back to their offices.

If you missed your first chance to check out what Equita has to offer, or if you need to stock up on some favourites, Equita will be having another sampling event and sale on Thursday October 5 from 12:00 - 2:00pm.

www.oxfamfairtrade.ca

Farewell Cuppa Coffee

The time has come for animation powerhouse Cuppa Coffee (Suite 400) to venture out to their very own building on Ontario Street.

In the inagural issue of the Robertson Pipeline, we told the story of the company conceived by Owner and Executive Producer Adam Shaheen, which began it's life as a three person operation at 401 Richmond. As the work produced by Cuppa Coffee achieved acclaim, the animation house started growing and its expansion was becoming difficult to accommodate at 401 Richmond. It was decided that the facility, with close to 250 staff, would relocate to the newly acquired 215 Spadina.

As the Robertson Building's very first tenant, Cuppa made the top two floors of the building home to production studios and a set and puppet building facility that pumped out a steady stream of award-winning and artfully conceived commercials and animated features.

Cuppa will be moving out of the Robertson Building in stages beginning this fall and their departure will herald a new era for 215 making room for other organizations to join the community. We'll keep you posted as new neighbours come on board.

www.cuppacoffee.com

Fireside with Mary Gordon

We had the pleasure of spending our afternoon with Mary Gordon on July 20. Given Mary's hectic schedule as the Founder and President of Roots of Empathy (Suite 160), it was a rare treat indeed.

The fireside chat was organized to welcome two new staff members to the organization and an invitation was extended to tenants at the Robertson Building. Mary spoke eloquently about the philosophies and ideals behind Roots of Empathy in a talk that was both moving and inspirational.

Mary founded Roots of Empathy in 1996 and in the ten years since her program was first introduced in public schools it has undergone staggering growth. The program takes babies into classrooms where children are led by a trained instructor through exercises that cultivate empathy.

The world is seen through the eyes of the baby and the children are given the opportunity to talk about their own concerns and issues; to find a language for their feelings in a supportive environment. The program has successfully achieved its goal of reducing levels of aggression among school children.

The Roots of Empathy mission is to "build caring, peaceful, and civil societies through the development of empathy in children and adults." The organization's unofficial goal, according to Mary, is to "put itself out of business" by creating a society where the program is no longer needed.

Mary in interested in continuing these types of conversations with the rich community at the Robertson Building , so please watch out for another chance to chat with your neighbours.

www.rootsofempathy.org

Irving Posluns at 401 Richmond

This summer Oxfam's (Suite 200) stunning collection of photographs by Irving Posluns travelled down Spadina to spend some time in an exhibition in the Roastery Coffee House. The show was very well received and will likely find its way to other venues.

The collection of photographs were donated to Oxfam and they have been exhibiting the images and offering them for sale to fundraise for the organization. Oxfam has a selection of the photos on display in their offices.

www.oxfam.ca

National Glass Graduate Exhibition

This summer Material Matters (Suite 101) hosted the second annual National Glass Graduate Exhibition showcasing works by graduates from the Alberta College of Art and Design, Sheridan College, and Espace Verre.

The exhibition was conceived and launched by Material Matters' Owner and Curator Lisa Wouhela to support new artists in the growing medium. Lisa has been in the Canadian glass art business for over twenty years and is encouraged by the vibrant talent being nurtured in colleges across Canada. With thirty-six participating students, the popularity of glass art cannot be denied.

www.materialmatters.ca

Profile: Eva's Initiatives

Eva's Initiatives' (Suite 370) story begins in 1994 with a single shelter for homeless youth in North York called Eva's Place. It was founded by a dedicated woman named Eva Smith who through her work at the North York Board of Education saw youth daily who were having significant problems in school and learned that in many cases this was a result of homelessness. At the time, it took a lot of convincing for people to recognize that homelessness was an issue, and more importantly that it was a reality for growing numbers of youth in their own neighbourhoods.

Eva's Place became a haven for these youth and also became the first initiative towards an award winning and precedent-setting organization that, fast-forward twelve years later, has just been unanimously chosen as the sole youth employment training site for the City of Toronto.

Eva's growth and success has by no means come easily. Maria Crawford, the Executive Director since 1996, has had to fight her share of battles to achieve the awareness and committment necessary to develop and maintain three service sites (Eva's Place, Eva's Phoenix, and Eva's Satellite), launch a national initiative that assists service organizations across Canada to develop programs for youth and grant National Innovation Awards that profile innovative groups working with youth across the country.

A secret to the success of the organization is an approach to providing service that relies on youth feedback to generate its programming and mandate.

As Maria explains, "what we did fairly early was address our primary frustration: we would work with youth, get them a place to stay, and hook them up with a job only to have them return a few months later with everything having fallen apart. So, through youth working groups and taskforces we talked to them about what was happening: what wasn't working, and what they actually needed to succeed and become independent. They told us quite frankly that they needed the same things we did: a decent job and a decent place to live, but also because of personal life circumstances many of them hadn't learned some of the basic life skills we take for granted. They wanted a supportive environment where they could make mistakes and learn those things. We find that sometimes homeless youth are the best consultants we could ever have and they haven't steered us wrong yet."

As a result of a collaborative effort of staff, youth, donors, and volunteers Eva's Phoenix opened in 2000 housing the employment training program and Eva's Print Shop, a graphic communications training facility and non-profit commercial print shop. All of the printing business supports youth.

With the new facility there was a City capital grant for construction, but these are never enough and most of their financial support came from the Buzz Hargrove Training Supports Program. The program was conceived and continues to be operated by Gerry Schwartz, the CEO of Onyx Corp. and is an invaluable supporter of the organization's work.

"Buzz and Gerry have taken a personal interest and have been real champions both behind and in front of the scenes - a large part of our success is due to their support and efforts." Rather than simply providing youth with employment option one, or two from which to choose Eva's Phoenix works holistically on a case by case basis to assess career path interests before working on partnerships to make that happen. Volunteer companies and individuals take on youth and provide training and mentorship that can result in full-time employment. This year Eva's Phoenix will see over one hundred youth in their training programs.

Eva's Satellite first took shape in emergency circumstances to accommodate homeless youth who were using drugs and alcohol (in the traditional shelter system people are turned away if they are under the influence). With about six weeks notice from the City of Toronto Eva's Satellite set up shop beneath the intersection of Yonge St. and Sheppard Ave. "We were literally and figuratively an underground operation that was supposed to last only one winter as a kind of out of the cold, immediate response project. But the youth came, and they came in droves. It quickly became clear to us that there was a real need for a place for youth struggling with drugs and alcohol."

Eva's Satellite has adopted a harm reduction approach to working with youth with a "model that's educational rather than punitive where we work with the youth to help them reduce the harm in using. We often find that once youth are aware of the harms, they want to make changes in their life." For Eva's this model, still in its pioneering stages, is the only approach that makes sense in terms of results and cost effectiveness, and is now being supported and promoted by the City of Toronto's Health Department.

Maria is very excited that Eva's Satellite, which was moved to a rundown office building after its first year underground, will be breaking ground on a brand new facility this fall. The new building is a perfect example of how Eva's makes things happen by dedicating tireless energy to fundraising initiatives that really drive their operations.

The evolution of the organization shows no sign of slowing as the clearly indefatigable staff continue innovating. In the beginning there was Eva's Place, and the shelter remains home to Eva's flagship Family Reconnect Program. "Finally this year we have statistics to show the amount of money we have saved the system by investing substantially early on with youth to get them out of the shelter system for good."

When asked about plans for the future Maria is a bit secretive not wanting to let anything out of the bag prematurely, but Eva's is never at a loss for ideas and assures us that "if we had the resources, I could tell you eighteen things we're going to do right away!"

Something Eva's is doing right away is hosting its second Taste Matters, a wine and food tasting event to benefit homeless youth on October 18. Contact 416.977.4497 x124 for more information.

Also if you would like a quote on printing services from Eva's Print Shop you can contact Business Manager Alexandra Djukic at 416.364.4716 x256 or alexandra@evas.ca

www.evasinitiatives.com