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A community of drop-ins and allied members throughout Toronto

 

About Toronto Drop-In Network (TDIN)

Get to know about TDIN

What is a Drop-in?
Drop-ins provide a welcoming space where people experiencing homelessness, who are marginally housed or who are socially isolated can feel safer and can meet their own basic physical, social, personal, and mental health needs. Drop-ins offer opportunities for drop-in participants to foster a positive sense of self by building relationships and exploring and exercising choice. Drop-ins play a key role in breaking down isolation, as well as supporting critically important social skills and connections.

What is the Toronto Drop-In Network (TDIN)?
In the 1990s, drop-ins in Toronto started forming networks to advance an understanding of the drop-in model, and to address issues of common concern. These networks joined to form Toronto Drop-In Network (TDIN): an active coalition of drop-in centres throughout the City of Toronto that work with people who are homeless, marginally housed, or socially isolated. Our Network includes drop-ins of all sizes, and with a diversity of philosophies that serve men, women, transgender and non-binary adults, youth, and seniors. TDIN associate membership includes organizations that provide outreach and other allied services to people who are homeless, marginally housed, or socially isolated.

TDIN is a member-based organization, which is trusteed by The Neighbourhood Group.

TDIN is a voice and a resource for the drop-in sector and communities.

Our Vision
A socially-just Toronto which is safe, healthy and inclusive for all.

Our Mission
To enhance the capacity of Toronto's network of drop-in centres to improve the quality of life of people who participate in their services.

Our Values
TDIN is committed to approaching our work with the following values:

  • Human-Centred & Community-Driven. We are agile, adaptable, compassionate, and responsive to emerging and maturing community needs.
  • Strategic & Sustainable Stewardship. We are innovative, responsible, and accountable while coordinating, developing, and implementing initiatives and services. We leverage shared resources and work collectively and collaboratively to achieve common outcomes.
  • Equity & Progressive Social Change. We celebrate intersectional diversity, integrate inclusive practices and embrace cultural humility, including our place as lifelong learners in equity-spaces. We align and implement policies and practices that are anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and promote accessibility. We advocate for systems where everyone can thrive.

Our Approach
TDIN is committed to carrying out our work with an overarching lens of generosity. We embrace abundance, especially as collective challenges of scarcity surround our work and the systems in which our work is embedded. TDIN is generous with our time, resources, commitment, and community. 

Our Governance and Structure

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The Toronto Drop-In Network (TDIN) is an active member-based coalition of over 50 organizations that run at least 56 diverse drop-in centres across the city of Toronto. Our members work with people who are homeless, marginally housed, or socially isolated, including men, women, transgender and non-binary people, youth and seniors.
 
The Toronto Drop-In Network acknowledges that our work takes place on the ancestral land of the Anishinabek, Chippewa, Haudenosaunee, and Wendat peoples; and most recently the Mississaugas of the Credit. We give deep thanks for the privilege of living and working on this land, and stand with Indigenous peoples as the caregivers of it.

We also acknowledge the lasting impacts of colonization and systemic oppression, particularly in the context of our work which is intrinsically tied to the land and our Treaty responsibilities as settlers and guests in Dish with One Spoon Territory.

TDIN recognizes the forced displacement and enslaved labour of African peoples from across the Atlantic Ocean. We acknowledge that many Canadian cities and institutions were built on both stolen Indigenous land and by the coerced labour of people of African descent. We recognize the ongoing impacts of Anti-Black racism and systemic inequities that Black communities continue to face in our city. We acknowledge and honor the cultural knowledge of Black and Indigenous communities and how it continues to shape our work.