Stories Behind the Photos

[Transcript]

My name is Helen de Oliveira, and I have been with Access Alliance for over 30 years. I have always worked in the language services department, which in the early days was known simply as Interpreter Services.

Before 1984, most interpreting was done voluntarily to support multilingual immigrant communities. It was not until 1988 that the City of Toronto’s Public Health Department awarded us our first contract and professional interpreter services were formally established. The service grew rapidly after Health Ontario officially funded Access Alliance as a community health center in 1989. By September of that year, we already had 85 trained interpreters providing services in 15 languages.

In 1992, we held Access Alliance’s very first interpreter conference. I helped organize this milestone event. We had this group picture taken during the event. Now look at this photo, you’ll see me kneeling in the front row. I’m the first one on the right, wearing a light-colored blouse. And this is one of our founders, Sung Hak, sitting in the second row, third from the left. Some of the interpreters in this picture are still with us today. This is incredible! The woman standing behind Sung Hak, the one also in a light-colored blouse – that’s Luba. She’s in her 80s now, but she’s still active in our language services. Oh gosh, this picture just opened the floodgate of my memories!

By the late 1990s, the service had grown to a roster of over 100 trained interpreters covering 25 languages. It also became a recognized leader in the Healthcare Interpretation Network. We were going to different community events and conferences to showcase our services, as you can see in one of the pictures displayed here in this exhibit.

Over time, I have seen our language services grow into a thriving social enterprise. We make sure that people get the right care in their own language while also bringing in revenue to support much-needed programs that don’t receive funding. Today, Access Alliance Language Services offers interpreting in over 220 languages. We lead best practices and help establish industry standards. We keep improving training and advocating for decent work for our interpreters. I am so proud to have been part of such a powerful force in breaking down language barriers.

[Transcript]

My name is Christen Kong, and I joined Access Alliance as a mental health promoter in 2021. By then, arts-based mental health programs were already widely embraced. What I didn’t realize was that Access Alliance had been a pioneer in this field—especially in using the arts to support refugee well-being and address gender-based violence.

The photo you see here was taken in 2008. It captures a group of Karen refugee women participating in a quilting program led by an art therapist. If you’ve never heard of the Karen people, you’re not alone—I only learned about them while researching the history of my program. The Karen are a minority ethnic group persecuted by the Myanmar government. In the early 2000s, Canada committed to resettling tens of thousands of Karen refugees who had spent decades stuck in camps along the Thai-Myanmar border.

Access Alliance’s Expressive Arts program began in 2004 through a partnership with an art therapist. A year later, with the arrival of many government-sponsored refugees, especially Karen refugees, the organization hired its first full-time Expressive Arts therapist to meet their needs. These refugees had survived war, jungle crossings, and years in camps, with little access to formal education. Language barriers made communication difficult. On top of that, many Karen women had endured gender-based violence, adding another layer of trauma. But in an Expressive Arts group—where healing happens beyond words—these women found a way to process their experiences, connect, and build support systems. A concurrent Expressive Arts group, facilitated around the same time, was for trans clients who experienced gender-based violence.

Since then, Expressive Arts programs at Access Alliance have expanded, using visual arts, music, dance, embroidery, and more to help participants of all ages, genders, and backgrounds find community and well-being.

[Transcript]

My name is Aamer Esmail and this is a story of among friends.  While I officially worked at Access Alliance from 2009 to 2014, my connection to among friends began much earlier. As a gay refugee to Canada. I knew first hand the challenges of navigating a new city. Two years before I joined Access Alliance as staff, I was already volunteering as an advisory member for [Among Friends] which Access Alliance was one of the three founding organizations.  

Among Friends began in 2005 when Access Alliance and some other organizations [The 519 and CultureLink] came together and said there were almost no services that were only for LGBTQ refugees. They got funding and launched an initiative that was aimed at training service providers and fostering inclusive spaces.

But here was the catch. The people who would do the training for service providers would themselves be LGBTQ refugees and newcomers. By 2009 I became the Among Friends coordinator, and my first two years with Among Friends were a whirlwind. We ran training sessions, hosted workshops, we attended many conferences, and we built a network of passionate LGBTQ+ newcomer volunteers. More than anything, we created a community, a place where people could find support, advocate for change, and feel a sense of belonging.

The event that’s captured in this picture collage is a 2010, Among Friends conference, a milestone event. By then, we had trained over 450 service providers and more than 100 volunteers had helped build a space where LGBTQ+ refugees could truly feel welcome. The energy in that room was electric, and this wasn’t just an event, it was proof that we were transforming the landscape of support for LGBTQ+ newcomers.

But the journey didn’t end there. Today, I learned that Among Friends at Access Alliance has supported over 1000 refugees just last year alone. Aw, 1000! What began as a small initiative has grown into a lasting moment, one that allows LGBTQ newcomers in Toronto to hear the words “You are among friends”.

[Transcript]

My name is Yousra Dabbouk, and I am a registered dietitian at Access Alliance. My journey into this work began during my graduate school years when I met my colleague, Jennifer Atkins. Both of us were passionate about developing nutrition programs that didn’t just focus on the science of food but also wove in creativity, social justice, and humanity.

We were fortunate to turn those interests into reality. In 2009, right after graduation, both of us were hired by Access Alliance, an organization that had long recognized nutrition as a key determinant of health. Even in its early days, Access Alliance prioritized food programming.

I learned although there had always been food and cooking programs, 1999 marked a turning point—the first time the center was able to consistently provide nutrition counselling. That year alone, over 400 dietitian appointments were made, and programs on managing diabetes, heart health, and body image were introduced. By the time Jenn and I joined, Access Alliance already had a well-established dietitian program, ran many Newcomer Cooking Together programs across the city with various partner agencies and was a lead organization in the West Toronto Diabetes Education Program.

So, when the health centre was preparing to move into its current location on College Street, they made sure to set up a big, bright, and fully equipped kitchen—one that would become a hub of learning, cooking, and community-building. The Community Kitchen at College Site, which opened in 1999, is still fully operational today. In fact, it is where Jenn and I started our Newcomers Cooking Together Men’s Edition in 2010 and where I ran my virtual cooking sessions during the COVID pandemic standing behind the same counter you see in this picture. It is also where my colleague Calla Fong will run a new cooking program this summer in 2025. Of course, we now have two more professional kitchens located in our West and East hubs, which we use more often. In fact, just yesterday morning community volunteers were preparing snacks for my Women’s Wellness program out of our Danforth kitchen.

Working at Access Alliance, serving refugees and immigrants, deepened my understanding of the intersection between food, culture, and health. It also sparked my interest in a transcultural and relational approach to nutrition counselling—one that recognizes that food is not just about nutrients but about people, traditions, and stories. Today, that perspective continues to shape the way we work, ensuring that every client’s experience is met with care, respect, and an understanding of the unique role food plays in their lives.

[Transcript]

My name is Song Hak Choi and I am one of the founders from four communities: the Korean Spanish-speaking community, Portuguese-speaking community and Vietnamese-speaking communities. Four community representatives who initiating making a community health center.

The movement actually started early ‘80s, like ‘83/’84. I was a kind of activist to advocate on behalf of young immigrant ethnic communities, immigrant communities, for accessibility including public service. We had… I don’t know how it was called… a town meeting, community, meeting after meeting.

So at the beginning, I think about 10 young immigrant communities were gathered, but in the process of getting the commission, many had to leave, and at the end, four communities remained, which were the founding communities. I was sent as a representative of the Korean community in the task force to create a kind of access point or primary health care service resource which is very culturally appropriate for newly arrived immigrants at that time. But as I told you I think at the beginning about 10 communities were there but gradually left. It took long. Meeting after meeting, I can’t remember how many meetings we had many, many meetings with public health staff and the activists from different ethnocultural community organizations. And they must get tired. It took too long to advocate to the government, to people associated with this… And so they left, and the last four communities remained: Access Alliance.

We were thinking and thinking of what would be the proper name for this organization. We always advocate for access, equity service, so we should use “access” in the official name.

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.

[Transcript]
My name is Fei Tang. I joined Access Alliance as a staff member in early 2019. Looking at this picture taken in 1989, you might be wondering why a less-known East Asian festival, the Mid Autumn Festival was celebrated here with such enthusiasm. As a first-generation Chinese immigrant, I was curious about it too.
I later discovered that our organization was founded by the Vietnamese and Korean communities, Along with Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking groups, these are the four founding communities of Access Alliance. Our first office was located at 509 College Street. It was at the border of Little Italy and Chinatown in downtown Toronto. At that time, the organization served a lot of Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese immigrants and refugees. That’s why, in those early years, traditional East and Southeast Asian festivals such as the Mid-Autumn Festival and Lunar New Year were celebrated as major events of the year. I am sure these vibrant gatherings have brought communities together. They helped to strengthen cross-cultural bonds and fostered a sense of belonging among those communities.
At the time when I joined the organization, the demographic of newcomers in Toronto had changed greatly. The Access Alliance community had grown increasingly diverse, especially after opening two new suburban centres in the east and west in 2010. We now have clients from all over the world. Newcomers from Asia continue to make up a significant portion of the organization’s clientele, but they now represent a lot of different nationalities.
Since the Government of Canada declared May as Asian Heritage Month, Access Alliance has embraced this broader recognition. Alongside Black History Month in February, the annual Asian Heritage Month celebration has replaced individual cultural observances. During these two months, we have weekly events across all our sites. These month-long celebrations have evolved into an agency-wide tradition that highlights the rich diversity of our community and our vibrant cultural heritages.

[Transcript]
My name is Cliff Ledwos, I joined Access Alliance as a staff member in 2008, but my connection to the organization started earlier—I had already spent a couple of years volunteering on the board prior to that. In those years, Access Alliance was in the midst of a transformative period, growing exponentially. At the heart of this transformation was the “Access Model”, a strategic vision developed in 2003 that centred around “Access, Quality and Equity”. The model served as both the engine and the steering wheel, guiding us forward.
Between 2004 and 2007, we made bold strides—securing new funding streams, expanding services into emerging newcomer neighbourhoods, and officially becoming a United Way member agency. We also changed our legal name to better reflect our broader service focus and established satellite services in Teesdale to the east and Syme Woolner to the west. And for the first time, we secured multi-year core funding for our settlement program from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, solidifying our long-term commitment to serving immigrant and refugee communities.
By the time we marked our 20th anniversary—fifteen years ago now—Access Alliance was ready to take a defining step: moving beyond Toronto’s downtown core and into the inner suburbs, where research showed that the need among newcomers, immigrants, and refugees was growing rapidly.
The moment captured in this photo marks a huge milestone in that journey. Taken in April 2010, it shows our first public event at our new location: AccessPoint on Jane. The occasion was Ontario’s Community Health Day, and as part of the celebration, we launched the Make Yourself at Home campaign, welcoming our new neighbours in the west. Although the official grand opening wouldn’t happen until January 2011, the space was already alive with activity—settlement services, newcomer cooking classes, homework clubs, arts-based programs—you name it! Of course, there’s also a primary care clinic. A few years later, it also became home to the city’s first walk-in clinic for non-insured patients, breaking down barriers to healthcare access for so many.
2010 was truly a year of opening doors. That September, after years of planning and advocacy, another vision took shape in bricks and mortar: AccessPoint on Danforth. As the second community hub funded through United Way’s Neighborhood Strategy, it became an anchor for vital services—primary health care, settlement support, youth and family programs, LGBTQ newcomer initiatives, and even a brand-new cycling program. The hub also housed several other community agencies, creating a space where collaboration and care flourished. The following year, construction began on the rooftop garden—an initiative that would go on to provide ecological and food-growing education while becoming a beloved gathering space.
Now, fifteen years later, the once-barren rooftop at AccessPoint on Danforth has flourished into a lush, productive garden and vibrant event space. The once-bleak strip mall where AccessPoint on Jane now stands has become a thriving hub of community activity, pulsing with life and connection. The doors we opened in 2010 weren’t just about expanding physical spaces—they were about broadening access to care, making services more equitable, and deepening community engagement. And that momentum is still going strong today.

[Transcript]
My name is Akm Alamgir. I am an internationally trained medical doctor and an academic researcher. As such, working in a community-based research setting has always fascinated me. I joined Access Alliance as a volunteer in 2011 and as a staff researcher in 2013. Many people know Access Alliance as a pioneer in researching, synthesizing, advancing, and mobilizing community knowledge. However, fewer realize that research has been a key foundational activity since the organization’s inception 35 years ago.
Evidence-informed programming has always been embedded in the organization’s DNA. According to our 1989/90 Annual Report, the centre’s Community Health Education Program identified research as one of its four primary focus areas. All four founders of Access Alliance participated in designing and conducting surveys within their own ethnic/linguistic communities and analyzed the survey results to inform future Planning.
The Research and Resource Unit of Access Alliance was established in 1991, and a formal set of research procedures and policies were developed (Annual Report 1990/91). Between 1993 and 1994, a health needs assessment was conducted with 380 multicultural community members living in West Toronto. The survey revealed that employment, education, housing, and family issues were this population’s most pressing concerns. In terms of health, mental stress was identified as a leading factor impacting their well-being (Annual Report 1993/94).
Thirty-five years later, Access Alliance’s service has expanded to support communities from all ethnic backgrounds. Yet, as you can see, the key social determinants of health affecting our communities remain essentially unchanged. Over the last three decades, Access Alliance’s community-based research (CBR) department has been a pillar of the organization’s success and pride. CBR is one of the reasons that Access Alliance can consistently identify and respond to community needs with the most effective interventions.
In 2003, the Access Model was framed as the organization’s new strategic direction for “Providing Leadership through Research and Advocacy.” This led to expanding our CBR capacity and positioning Access Alliance as a leader in the CBR arena. The organization developed numerous resources and trained countless researchers, earning recognition from mainstream academic institutions and global leaders in the field.
One such leader is Dr. Budd Hall, UNESCO’s Chair in Community-Based Research. An Officer, Order of Canada, and an Emeritus Professor, Dr. Budd Hall, visited Access Alliance in 2013. The picture here captures his visit in 2013. His passion for CBR, his global commitment to social change by CBR, and the emergent reputation of Access Alliance in CBR influencing system change inspired him to come to our place to meet the fellow research team and the peer researchers. I was very excited to see him so close. I remember that day. We exchanged ideas on the challenges of CBR in Canada regarding credibility by the academic researchers and the funders. He mentioned Access Alliance as the leader in CBR in health and advocacy. We discussed and received his insights on (i) how to strengthen the CBR framework at Access Alliance, (ii) how to contribute more to system changes with CBR evidence, and (iii) how to influence policy changes in favour of the equity-deserving people. He reinforced Access Alliance’s legacy and reputation as a leader in participatory health research aligning with global CBR movements led by Dr. Hall and UNESCO.
Today, Access Alliance’s CBR department is recognized as a leader in the sector for our research skills and strengths. Partnering with key academics and clinicians across Canada for over a million dollars in 12 projects, it continues to drive systemic change through research and advocacy focusing on access, engagement, attachment, and equity. It addresses the needs of new and emerging communities while ensuring that our services remain responsive, equitable, and effective.