PETER CROSBY

20 YEARS AT FST – A REFLECTION

FAMILY SERVICE TORONTO: CITY-WIDE SERVICE SINCE 1914

History has a way of repeating itself. FST’s venerable history shows us that social and economic forces set the agenda of service needs. Being responsive to the needs of people informs the values which guide the work of the organization. The cycle continues to this day.

90 YEARS AGO

This organization was originally named Neighbourhood Workers Association. In the fall of 1918, “with terrifying suddenness, the first Flu’ epidemic swept the city. Whole families were stricken. The death toll mounted, and doctors and nurses were worked to the point of exhaustion.” The NWA became the organizing centre for relief work, distributing 6,098 pneumonia jackets, masks, bedding, clothing, and thousands of quarts of liquid.

80 YEARS AGO

The storm of the Depression broke and the numbers coming to NWA for help rose dramatically. By 1931, the NWA was serving 87,752 families annually, with each of the nine district offices averaging 50-75 clients per day. The figures in 1932 were even more alarming – 148,348 office interviews, an increase of more than 40% in one year.

Group work became a new feature of the NWA, because “loss of morale, family disruption leading to smoldering antagonism, desertion, etc., made the development of new interests in these families imperative.” Local associations initiated Parent Education groups, Men’s Clubs, Layette Clubs, dramatics, cooking and knitting to relieve the bitterness and boredom in clients’ lives.

In 1937, when society began celebrating better economic times, Frank Stapleford, Director, noted that 73,171 people in Toronto were still unemployed. “The depression is not over until work is available to all.”

50 YEARS AGO

Family and marital counselling became the NWA’s primary focus, and every effort was made to strengthen this mandate. District Offices were renamed Family Service Centres. NWA pioneered the development of social group work for youth and children. A Casework Standards Committee was established by the Board to heighten the quality of counselling. From the beginning of the decade to the end (1950-1960), the number of families counselled by NWA doubled to 4,005.

It is with deep appreciation that FST acknowledges our long-standing association with The Needlework Guild of Canada, Toronto Chapter, which has donated new and hand-made clothing for FST clients every winter since 1914!

Introduction by Margaret Hancock, Executive Director

Peter Crosby has been a catalyst for change since he joined Family Service Toronto in 1988 as the Divisional Director for the Central/East Region. During the next twenty years, under Peter’s dedicated and ambitious leadership, the programs and services of FST expanded significantly from its core counselling services to embrace more community development and social advocacy. Peter’s passion for justice, particularly around services for women who are abused and the men who are the abusers, has resulted in the expansion of the domestic violence program.

He shepherded the integration of the Toronto Counselling Centre for Lesbians and Gays which resulted in the creation of FST’s renowned David Kelley Services. He has initiated important new programs such as the COPE outreach project and Caring Dads which stretch our work beyond the framework of traditional counselling to meet the emerging needs of the city’s most marginalized people. He has been central to the development of person-centred planning and individualized funding for people labeled with intellectual disabilities, a best practice approach which FST will now apply to our innovative work with seniors to help them stay at home longer.

Currently the team leader for FST’s vast portfolio of programs and services, Peter has decided it is time for a change. On December 31st, he will resign from this position and become the clinical manager of the Next Steps program, FST’s program to help men find alternatives to abusive behaviour towards their intimate partners. This is excellent for Peter and for FST.

Peter will have the pleasure of being able to focus on one piece of work where he can make a major contribution and to be more engaged with clients; and FST will continue to have the benef it of his deep knowledge about social work and his fervent commitment to fight oppression in all its manifestations.

I’m leaving my senior leadership role at Family Service Toronto on December 31 and becoming the part-time manager of the Next Steps Program. When I was asked to reflect on my twenty years in leadership and experience, I felt honoured to have the opportunity to share some of my thoughts. I have been with the agency and in Toronto through a period of extraordinary change.

On Violence Against Women Programming

The agency I found in 1988 was a mix; one thing I really liked was the commitment to working with violence against women. The agency was a leader in serving assaulted women and in working with men. This commitment was a major factor in my choice to join FST and has been a focus throughout my career. To look around and see the range of supports that we provide to women both straight and gay and from a variety of ethnic backgrounds is a source of pride for me. It has been an honour to work with a number of women who provide leadership both in and out of the agency. The work of Lisa Manuel in both woman abuse and elder abuse and Laurie Chesley for her leadership in same sex abuse stand out internally. Outside the agency I have been privileged to have a role over many years in the development of interagency collaboration which led to the creation of the Woman Abuse Council (WACT) and then to have worked both as a Board and Council member of WACT. I can’t name all the amazing women I encountered but Fran Odette, Vivien Green, Lynn Slotek, Amanda Dale and Liz Janzen stand out in my professional life. More recently, collaborating with Dr. Katreena Scott of OISE (the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) to bring Caring Dads to FST has been a source of continued learning and pleasure for me and it has added value for FST and our clients. I have been deeply impressed by Patti Sanders of the Ministry of the Attorney General and Karen Turner of the Ministry of Community and Social Services (MCSS) as they balanced their duty as civil servants with unabashed passion for support for the work we do with women.

Of course much remains to be done. It is a tragedy that we continue to have to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to support and heal women and children who are victims of abuse and to charge, imprison and re-educate men, in part because the commitment to public education designed to fundamentally shift values is under-resourced. We (Ontario society) could spend less on hospital care, criminal justice responses and ruined lives if we had a well-resourced transformational strategy. Other jurisdictions have led the way. With more time on my hands next year I hope to become part of creating a world where most men not only don’t abuse but also help their brothers and friends to stop abusing. I’m not a utopian but we can do so much better.

On Anti-Poverty Work

There is nothing of which I am more proud than being a member of an agency that has played such a significant role in advocating for a reduction in child and family poverty. I have been a very small part of that work but I have been and continue to be inspired by the work of Rosemarie Popham, Laurel Rothman, Pedro Barata, Jacquie Maund, Marvyn Novick and others who have led the way through Campaign 2000.

On Partnerships

Perhaps the greatest pleasure in my years at FST has been the many opportunities to be involved in partnering with others to create new initiatives that bring important supports to vulnerable and marginalized communities. In 1996 we at FST received an enormous gift. Three board members from the Toronto Counselling Centre for Lesbians and Gays came knocking on our door at 22 Wellesley and asked if we were interested in merging their programs with ours. Perched on the edge of the LGBT community, we weren’t doing much for them and this invitation led to the creation of the David Kelley Services (DKS). Having the opportunity to play a leadership role in the merger and subsequently in the support of the programs and the continuing transformation of the agency has been a source of great pleasure for me. That pleasure includes the opportunity to develop close relationships with Jude Tate and Laurie Chesley. Jude was a critical leader in the early days, able to take a strong lead in demanding necessary commitments but able to recognize commitment when it came and to sit at the table and plan collaboratively. Laurie has been the mainstay of the DKS program since its creation and has managed to survive and generate creativity in a complex pressure cooker environment.

I cannot write in detail here about all the initiatives I have been privileged to be a part of creating, but I must share some, however briefly. I said earlier that it is not enough to do excellent work, one must also showcase it. There have been some exceptions. One of them was the offer from MCSS to develop person- centered planning and individualized funding for people with intellectual disabilities. I think that under Ana Vicente’s leadership the reputation of our small case management unit was very strong and Ana’s personal reputation for being competent, compassionate and cooperative was even stronger. We did not ask but were asked by the Ministry of Community and Social Services to develop the IQOL pilot and then the Options programs. The early days when we worked with Frank Cummings of MCSS to put the program design together and assemble a staff team were very heady and the continued success of the work under Ana’s leadership has led to other opportunities such as the best Passport program in Ontario.

For more reflections from 20 years at FST, go to Peter’s Blog at our website.

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