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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
To work toward a socially-just Toronto which is safe, healthy, and inclusive.

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
The Toronto Drop-in Network and its members strive to be:

  • Community-driven and responsive;
  • Adaptable, innovative, and collaborative;
  • Respectful of equity and inclusion of TDIN members and participants;
  • Supportive of participant engagement in program design and delivery, and of participant self-determination.

Our Purpose
To promote standards of best practice in drop-in services;

  • To support drop-in workers’ professional development through training and tool development;
  • To increase the capacity of drop-ins to provide effective and appropriate services;
  • To provide a voice for drop-ins to advocate on issues that affect both drop-ins and their participants;
  • To employ strategies that meaningfully engage drop-in participants, and support opportunities for leadership;
  • To increase participant access to community services and supports.

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.
 
TDIN acknowledges our lives and work take place on the ancestral land of the Anishnabek, Chippewa, Haudenosaunee, and Wendat peoples; and most recently the Mississaugas of the Credit. We give thanks for the privilege of living and working on this land, and stand with First Nations peoples as the keepers of it. 

We also acknowledge the lasting impacts of colonization and systemic oppression which has and continues to grievously impact First Nations peoples, 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.