Massey Centre Receives Significant New Technology Funding through Green4Good Financial Partner

The Massey Centre’s roots in the community date back to the beginning of the twentieth century, when the Fred Victor Mission in downtown Toronto opened its doors to women in need and subsequently founded a mission dedicated to supporting for unwed, pregnant women, single mothers, and their babies. This mission was eventually incorporated as The Massey Centre for Women in 1989. From its roots until today, the Centre has provided home, hope, and refuge for thousands of pregnant and parenting adolescents and their babies. Now a major Canadian financial institution (which asked to remain anonymous), with funds raised through Green4Good™, is supporting the installation of Wi-Fi at several Massey Centre facilities.

This venture will help young women in the advanced stages of pregnancy who lack normal family and community support structures to make medical appointments and look up issues of concern from their own rooms instead of having to go to another floor or building to gain Internet access. In addition, it will enable young mothers in similar situations to search for employment, further their studies, and look for long-term accommodation.

As Ekua Blair, Massey Centre’s CEO, described it, “A young mother recovering from a mental health crisis needed to rest, but each morning she would get dressed, apply her makeup, and walk over from her unit in the Postnatal Transitional Housing at about 10 a.m. and sit in one of the chairs in the hallway of our Prenatal Residential building and quietly log on to the Wi-Fi in the onsite secondary school to check her emails, keep in touch with friends, or surf the internet. This daily exercise was therapeutic for her and helped with the healing process.” Wi-Fi connectivity enables such people—who often have few resources and can’t afford cellular data plans—to stay in touch with what is important to their lives.

Some key areas of Massey Centre lacked Wi-Fi infrastructure. The funding from the Green4Good-refurbished assets is being used to support the installation of Wi-Fi in the Prenatal building (in the residence bedrooms, Mothers’ Lounges, offices, and dining room); Postnatal building (in the 17 townhouses, 10 apartments, Counsellors’ office and Mothers’ Lounge); Early Learning Centre (in the classrooms, offices, lounges, and kitchen); Ontario Early Learning Centre (in the play area, offices and Boardroom).

Compugen Finance, through Green4Good and with the generous support of the financial institution, is thrilled to have been able to help The Massey Centre with this project.

CFI and Green4Good have previously supported the Massey Centre with ongoing funding through other partner organizations. See video here.