Our History

On October 17th, 1988, Ontario’s Ministry of Health announced significant funding to formally establish Access Alliance as a community health centre, giving us the official mandate and resources to provide health promotion and primary health care services to four priority communities. The following year, in 1989, a new community-based and community-governed health centre was born, the result of years of collaborative health-related volunteer work by committed professionals from the Korean, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Spanish-speaking communities in Toronto.

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Take a journey along our timeline to see how, over the past 35 years, we’ve built up an organization based on equity, inclusion, and innovation. View the full timeline.

Guided by two AI hosts, we invite you on an exploratory journey through Access Alliance’s rich history. With new technology, our storytelling is getting more intriguing. We used an AI tool to produce an engaging podcast episode highlighting our innovative strides over the past 35 years. The content has been fact-checked.  Click here to join us for a deep dive!

Access Alliance Language Services (AALS) has been with us from the very beginning, even before Access Alliance was designated as a community health centre in 1989. A significant expansion of the program occurred between 1998 and 2000. During that time, we recruited, tested and trained interpreters to provide culturally appropriate and linguistically accurate services in over 50 languages to government agencies, hospitals, mental health organizations, and more. A leader in developing national standards and training and advocating for regulation, AALS has evolved to support 125 different languages, including Indigenous languages. We continue to develop interpretation training and practice standards, advocate for the employment of qualified professional interpreters, and strive to break down language barriers for newcomers by leveraging technology and digital strategies.

Learn more about AALS here

As early as 1989, the newly established Access Alliance dove into research activities, conducting joint studies on the fitness status and needs of Toronto’s Portuguese community, and organizing consultations on substance abuse issues. These early initiatives, coupled with the real lack of evidence about needs and issues affecting newcomer communities, led to the development of our Community-Based Participatory Action Research program, now recognized as a leader in the CHC sector. Focused on collaboration and knowledge mobilization to achieve systems change, we worked with academic partners, and trained peer researchers and community groups to ensure research questions focused on indicators of disadvantage, barriers to access, and the impact of systemic barriers. Today, our CBR department continues to shape research that addresses the needs of marginalized communities, driving evidence-based system changes.

In 2000, Access Alliance joined forces with Parkdale Community Legal Clinic and other newcomer-serving organizations to create the OHIP for Babies coalition in order to challenge OHIP’s practice of refusing health insurance to babies born in Ontario to non-status parents. This flouted legislation. Faced with a charter challenge, OHIP removed this restriction within a year of the coalition’s launch. However, it took years of relentless advocacy for hospitals and other providers to finally end the practice of billing non-status parents for newborns’ healthcare. This victory was a significant step toward our vision of Healthcare for All. Today, we continue advocating for equal healthcare access, ensuring no-one is left behind in Canada’s universal healthcare system.

Although volunteer peer support has long been a staple in the nonprofit world, in 2002, Access Alliance became the first community health centre to employ newcomer women peers to do structured, paid outreach work. Focusing on hard-to-reach and underserved newcomer communities, Peer Outreach Workers play a crucial role in providing culturally sensitive support and resources to newcomer families. Employed as part of an interdisciplinary team, they build trust, connect families to essential services, and empower women through leadership and parenting capacity-building initiatives. In recent years, these workers have also led vaccine engagement and other health promotion campaigns, further enhancing community partnerships and support for marginalized newcomers and their families.

Twenty years ago, therapists at Access Alliance faced a challenge: gender-violence survivors from newcomer communities couldn’t process their trauma—they couldn’t speak English and the pain of their experiences was unspeakable. In response, we created the first Expressive Arts (EA) group . Using creative mediums like visual arts, music, dance, and embroidery, participants could now transcend  verbal language, addressing trauma through art. While primarily focused on women and children, EA builds on a range of post-migration experiences, reduces newcomers’ social isolation, and addresses settlement and integration challenges. The groups are creative, responsive and culturally appropriate.  Today, our EA programs continue to help refugees and those at risk of gender-based violence, fostering healing and connection. Recent initiatives like Hubs of Expressive Arts for Life (HEAL) also build capacity to prevent domestic violence in newcomer communities.

In the early 2000s, while mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals grew among the general population, racialized LGBTQ+ newcomers still faced significant barriers—in addition to homophobia, they often experienced racism and ostracization from their ethnic communities. Recognizing this gap, The 519, CultureLink, and Access Alliance partnered in 2006 to launch Among Friends, Toronto’s first settlement program for LGBTQ+ newcomers. With three-year funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the program expanded services beyond the downtown core, creating best practices and building agency capacity for positive spaces. Today, Among Friends continues to thrive at Access Alliance, serving over a thousand 2SLGBTQI+ refugees annually in recent years.

In 2011, we transformed our Danforth rooftop from an asphalt desert into a 6,500 sq. ft. organic garden, to build community members’ skills in growing and eating healthy foods. This “green roof” links health, education, and growing food in small urban spaces, providing produce for programs like our community kitchen and cooking programs, and integrating with initiatives like youth garden volunteers and outdoor workshops. As climate change progresses, the green roof’s value grows. An essential part of our community hub, it showcases the value of growing in small spaces, while enhancing health outcomes, supporting ecological education, and connecting our community to the living world and one another.

Fourteen years ago, Access Alliance and six local community health centres created a walk-in clinic for non-insured residents in response to growing primary care needs. The NIWIC, originally providing services for non-insured west-end residents, has since expanded to become a primary health care clinic serving non-insured individuals across Toronto. Staffed by a nurse practitioner, nurse, midwife, and secretary, the clinic served over 1,000 clients last year. As a collaborative response to a critical need, NIWIC is essential to the health of many high-priority communities, and plays a crucial role in addressing the healthcare gap for non-insured residents.

NIWIC services and hours

Ten years ago, through Mid-West Toronto Health Link, an innovative idea took root that evolved into Solo Practitioners in Need (SPiN). This program bridges solo doctors with local community health centres (CHCs), providing complex patients with essential services like dietitian support, mental health counselling, and exercise classes. Access Alliance led the way, helping doctors refer high-priority patients for comprehensive care. We built relationships, conducted training, and streamlined referral pathways, allowing doctors to focus on their practice while patients received needed support. This successful model has inspired similar “SPiN-off” programs across the province, showcasing the power of collaboration in improving access to care.

In 2014, the community was deeply impacted by the tragic loss of Nahom Berhane, a beloved community leader, youth worker, and health promoter at Access Alliance. To honour his legacy, Nahom’s family partnered with Access Alliance in 2015 to establish the Nahom Berhane Scholarship for Leadership and Inclusion. Since its inception, the scholarship has provided tuition assistance to 28 youths who exemplify volunteerism, community service, and leadership. By 2025 (its 10th and final year) the scholarship will have awarded $116,000 through 34 scholarships—one for each year of Nahom’s life—ensuring that his legacy of community impact continues.

In 2016, responding to our nation’s commitment to resettle 50,000 Syrian refugees, we collaborated with COSTI to deliver essential healthcare services to Syrian refugees in various reception centres, including hotels near Pearson Airport. A trailblazer in Toronto, our hotel-based clinic not only provided primary care but also crucial interpretation services.

In 2021, we activated similar services to address the primary care needs of Afghan refugees temporarily hosted in hotels. Today, we remain dedicated to meeting refugees where they are, offering compassionate primary and mental health care to our newest clients as they settle in Canada.

Read our hotel clinic blog article

In the spring of 2019, Access Alliance launched Hijabs & Helmets, Canada’s first cycling initiative designed specifically for hijabi women and girls. Recognizing the unique challenges faced by observant newcomer Muslim women, the program brought together participants for “learn to bike” sessions, group rides, and road safety training. From mastering bike mechanics to exploring the city, Hijabs & Helmets promotes active, healthy lifestyles while fostering a sense of belonging. It also provides participants with a sustainable, low-cost, healthy travel option. More than just a cycling program, it creates a space for empowerment and inclusivity, while countering Islamophobic sentiments through community building on two wheels.