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Free the onion, Grow the ivy

Abbeyfield Guelph FUND: serving our community of unemployed, needy and dispossessed friends at 40 Baker Street.

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Free the onion, Grow the ivy

Free the onion, Grow the ivy

Free the onion, Grow the ivy

Free the onion, Grow the ivy

Free the onion, Grow the ivy

Abbeyfield Guelph FUND: serving our community of unemployed, needy and dispossessed friends at 40 Baker Street.

Abbeyfield Guelph FUND: serving our community of unemployed, needy and dispossessed friends at 40 Baker Street.

Abbeyfield Guelph FUND: serving our community of unemployed, needy and dispossessed friends at 40 Baker Street.

Abbeyfield Guelph FUND: serving our community of unemployed, needy and dispossessed friends at 40 Baker Street.

Sue Potvin
Sue Potvin
Sue Potvin
Sue Potvin
1 Campaign |
Guelph, Canada
$7,702 USD $7,702 USD 46 backers
2% of $278,085 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal

In this community based fund raising campaign we need your help. The variety of our specific programs constitute the leaves of our onion as do the volunteers and our streams of donors of bread, sandwich meats, milk, truck food, clothing, books, shoes, art supplies, tampons, juices, and on and on. The music, artwork, laughter and all sorts of human community is the ivy which winds in and out of the platform we call our onion.

If home is where the heart is a community with a heart does not ignore nor judge its homeless, needy and dispossessed. If our onion and ivy campaign resonates positively you can help us survive and grow. We'd appreciate it if you could take time to look at our three main programs. They'll help you to feel what we mean by our onion and ivy.

Our Place Youth Circle

Fresh Start Housing Centre

Baker Street Art Gallery

Our non-profit, charitable organization is an NGO in the strongest sense. In some ways being a determined Non-Government Organization is our greatest strength BUT this does create financial challenges. On behalf of the people who need us to exist we push aside the boundaries which professionalized organizations require. Some call this operating outside the box. 

For many years we operated in rented commercial space. Often this meant the people who need us were judged and/or harassed by landlords, commercial neighbours and law enforcement authorities of various kinds. In 2007 we were able to purchase the building at 40 Baker Street (it was on the market "power of sale" and needed quite a lot of work). We thus became our own landlord and were more able to offer more privacy and respect to the comings and goings of the people who need us... and this continues as long as we manage to meet mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, heat and hydro and the other responsibilities which come with "ownership".

We would like to pay off our mortgages so that we can operate a balanced budget. (Insert big smile.) At the moment our annual expenses exceed our annual revenues and our reserves are reduced dramatically each year.

We hope this crowd funding campaign is successful via donations from individuals, families, organizations, businesses and strangers who see or sense significant value in the services and opportunities we provide to our Guelph community. Reducing or getting rid of the  mortgage will  allow us to free our onion so we can continue to nurture the ivy.

To Illustrate a challenge and success we're presenting several excerpts from a book "The Onion And The Ivy" published by a University of Guelph class project a couple of years ago.


“What 40 Baker street means to me is the heart of the community a place of acceptance, advocacy & shared conversations over art, painting, sculpture or just hanging out where once can be free to express themselves through art music, or the written form.

"From the myriad of services offered, the youth centre upstairs to the Fresh Start housing Centre, the Chalmers food pantry Ed Video upstairs at any given time there is connection , support, a vibrant pulse of downtown, often open when others are not. A place that defines, " A family of choice" or by default. As i look around me today on a Saturday at the gallery, i hear conversations, hear music coffee, food computers, babies being held children teenagers, young adults, older generations gathering over art, being embraced by the art on display , I can only wrap it up in two select words, 40 baker Street to me , has been over and over again a Refuge and an Oasis.” ~ Nina Menard


“Home is where the heart is, we've all heard it before and most likely automatically presume that it referred to home, however in my opinion home is where the heart is the happiest . It may well be to the people that inhabit that particular space, it mat simple be the general energy and unyielding acceptance. Whatever cause, whatever the reason , 40 Baker Street is where I'm the happiest, 40 baker Street is my home.” ~Kyle MacLean


“40 baker Street, Fresh Start, Our Place The Gallery, 40 Baker Street is known under many names . Mine for this place is home. A chaotic beautiful, terrifying, exciting , horribly wonderful location , filled with people from various creeds, families, races,ethnicity and even countries, where we all converge due to some common need, goal or aspiration. many i call family few I call friends. To sum it up in one simple, comprehensive word: Community.” ~ Bob Morbid


Recently our community at 40 Baker experienced the loss of a beautiful young woman who, for a variety of reasons took her own life. She was dearly loved and her loss was a huge blow to many of us. In the face of this tragedy, the value of our programs became evident. Dozens of young people gathered at 40 Baker Street to process the loss, to be together and get support from each other. At least 150 people from 40 Baker Street attended the memorial service, showing their love in a deeply respectful way. After the memorial they returned to 40 Baker Street for a pizza dinner. Without the staff and volunteers at 40 Baker Street, these people would have had no place to go to be together. As you may know, suicides often occur in clusters - when one young person does it, several others often follow. The fact this did not occur that time is a testament to the supportive community 40 Baker Street provides.


As a collectivity the programs at 40 Baker Street address the needs of marginalized people in the Guelph community - physical, practical and creative - allowing our clients to reach their full potential, whatever that may be.

1. Fresh Start Housing Centre: This drop in centre operates Monday through Friday. Our volunteers offer support for housing crisis, assistance for applications for ODSP, OW and geared-to-income housing and a host of other needs such as resume writing and income tax forms. Our goal is to ensure that barriers which prevent people from getting adequate housing are identified and addressed. On average more than 100 people per day access our sandwich, salads, desserts, coffee and juice.

2. Our Place Youth Circle & Supper Club: This is a safe supervised space where at-risk youth (ages 16-24) can gather to socialize, use internet and phones and eat healthy food.The goal of the volunteer staff at Our Place is to build relationships with at-risk youth, increasing opportunities to get healthy meals, medical care, addictions counseling, trauma therapy and whatever else they need. On average the Youth Supper Program serves dinner to 25 people every evening, sometimes peaking close to 50. 


3. The Baker Street Art Gallery: The Gallery is open on Saturdays and Sundays. Everyone is welcome to come in and create art with donated supplies. Food is provided, as well as internet and phones. The volunteer staff seek to address an evident need for a healing, creative outlet, making a space that is home to a wide variety of people facing a wide variety of issues. Some call it a living art centre... 


We are a registered non-profit charity and you can be provided a tax receipt recognized for tax purposes by Revenue Canada. If you do not qualify to pay taxes in Canada we can provide you with a gratitude receipt.

Please help us in our efforts to provide solid, nurturing and creative solutions seven days a week for our needy friends in Guelph.

Abbeyfield Guelph Fund
c/o Abbeyfield Houses Society of Guelph
40 Baker Street, Guelph, Ontario N1H 4G1

Registered Charity #89254-4776-RP0001

COMMENTS since campaign launch:

There is a very special corner of Guelph called 40 Baker. It flies in the face of conformity, making a place where those most disenfranchised can belong. I have been supported and empowered in some of my lowest times there, and have also been blessed to share some of my best times there too. - Tina B on her facebook status 29 March 2014



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Share The Dream

Currency Conversion $28 USD
$40 CAD
For every $40 a gratitude share certificate in the onion and ivy Campaign 2014 (a donation of $160 would result in a certificate showing 4 shares, etc.) If 10,001 people donate $40.00 we will reach our goal. You could be the one!
13 claimed

Share The Dream

Currency Conversion $306 USD
$440 CAD
For every donation of $440 a gratitude share certificate plus right to have your name listed as a patron and supporter of Abbeyfield Guelph FUND on our website and in each of our Baker Street Vids on YouTube and your name will be entered in a draw the winner of which will be entitled to name a charity to which we will donate $4,040.00 in the winner's name.
9 claimed

Share The Dream

Currency Conversion $2,808 USD
$4,040 CAD
For donations of $4,040.00 we will place a good solid plaque in the lobby at 40 Baker Street expressing our thanks, gratitude and respect -- plus all the honoraria listed in the other categories.
1 claimed

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