Welcome Inn Community Centre

How is the Learning & Fun program structured, and what's so special about our summer camp?

For children struggling academically or socially, experiencing poverty, or simply adjusting to life in the neighbourhood, the LAF program is a place of belonging and an opportunity to grow both academically and socially. Connected to the two local elementary schools, Welcome Inn invites 50 children (grades 1-8) who would benefit from the support of a mentor and a vibrant afterschool program. This year, the program has included new elements aimed to promote parent-supported learning, celebrate cultural diversity, encourage community engagement, and foster emotional wellness. Together with the existing financial literacy and enrichment activities, the LAF program truly is one that benefits the whole student! It runs daily, from Monday to Thursday, mirroring the academic calendar.

At Welcome Inn's summer day camp, children (aged 5-11) are invited to enjoy games, crafts, swimming, special outings, and much more! Our summer camp makes good use of Bennetto Recreation Centre, offering 45 camp spots for six straight weeks each summer. The all-day camp is one of Hamilton's most affordable and accessible summer camps. Our camp staff are passionate about their work and committed to the well-being of all the children. It's a beautifully dynamic program that even includes an annual talent show!

When it comes to community development, Professor Nabeel Hamdi is a recognized leader. He is the Emeritus Professor of Housing and Urban Development at Oxford Brookes University, and he's won the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour for his work on Community Action Planning. In his book Small Change, he wrote:

"In order to do something big—to think globally and act globally—one starts with something small and one starts where it counts. [Good development practice] is about making the ordinary special and the special more widely accessible. It is about building densely interconnected networks, crafting linkages between unlikely partners and organizations, and making plans without the usual preponderance of planning. It is about getting it right for now and at the same time being tactical and strategic about later.”

When it comes to community development, Welcome Inn also believes its important to start small and make the ordinary special. There's not a lot of pomp and circumstance around our Diners Club or our food bank or our peer support groups--just ordinary people, sharing ordinary lives together. BUT, linkages are being created and our programs do get it right for now, fostering a sense of belonging for so many individuals. We believe that small change, in our local communities, could bring about substantial change in our world, AND we believe that it is ordinary, everyday community members who will create the kind of place that we all want to share in together. Place-making begins small, and it involves all of us.

Another practitioner, Nupur Chaudhury, put it this way: "We work at the invitation of residents, with the understanding that they have a deep understanding not only of the problems facing the community, but of the best solutions."

Our plant exchange is ON!
We’ll be here until 3 with a seed and seedling swap, seed starting, and more.

Our spring fundraising campaign is in its second week! Join us in working toward raising $60,000 for our collective work to create a space of BELONGING!

Graduating grade 8 this year? Need high school volunteer hours? Spend some time this summer having fun swimming, making crafts and playing with kids. Volunteer at Welcome Inn’s summer day camp!
Make memories and meet new friends while earning volunteer hours.
For more information contact Michelle at [email protected]

#2026

Why donate to Welcome Inn? The case for support is pretty simple.

Every donation is a participation in a community-wide effort to address systemic injustice. Our team of dedicated and consistent volunteers put in a tonne of hours; community members provide meaningful leadership and program support; and our small staff team provides guidance. All this would not be possible, though, without the generosity of local foundations and generous donors. Donors don't just financially support from outside. At Welcome Inn, they are very much a part of our collective effort to create a space for people to Live WELL Together. You are part of our team!

We are so grateful for our partnership with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. Thank you to all the musicians who serenaded us at Seniors Diners Club for two weeks in a row. What a gift it was for us. 🎶 ❤️

This older gentleman never wears anything but a simple pair of jeans.

I have to be careful not to say too much about him. He's always wanted to remain anonymous and support Welcome Inn in his own quiet way. Put simply, though, I have never seen generosity more humbly embodied. His cash donations started in 2020, and he continues to walk to Welcome Inn to this day.

Welcome Inn has never named any of its rooms, and I'm not suggesting that we are going to start doing so. BUT, if we were to ever name a room after a donor, I would like to pay tribute to all those who give what they can and do so with quiet faithfulness. There are many of them.
--Jamie VanderBerg, Interim Executive Director

Donations come in all shapes and sizes, and each one matters to an organization like Welcome Inn!

It is far too easy for not-for-profit organizations to fall into the trap of identifying needs (or gaps) and imposing a solution to the problem from outside, often from a position of privilege. Something unique happens when organizations invite community members to share their own experience, to participate in the programming that benefits them, to provide leadership. Welcome Inn is not perfect, and sometimes we fall into this trap, too. Our constant goal, though, is to listen intently to all community members, to create ways for them to shape the programs that we offer, and, most importantly, to empower community members to "proactively contribute to positive change within their own community." Seniors have been invited to sit around tables together, participating in focus groups; LAF participants (when they're old enough) are invited to be volunteer camp counsellors; newcomers are invited to provide leadership at our food bank; and our peer support groups are led by those with lived experience. We don't look at Hamilton's central core and see "lack"; we see "promise".

To learn more about Asset-Based Community Development, you're invited to check out the resources available through the Tamarack Institute, which is an organization our executive leadership is very familiar: https://www.tamarackcommunity.ca/skills-for-change/abcd-canada

All of your donations, regardless of their size, drive a very intentional approach!