To Our Community,
Late Friday evening a fire was set outside of our office space near Yonge and Dundas Square. Toronto Fire Services and Toronto Police are currently investigating the specific circumstances of the incident, but we’re thankful no one was injured and that all staff and community members had left the space earlier that evening. At Maggie's we share space with an incredible team at Holy Trinity and many community members who call this area home, accessing vital forms of emergency aid and social support from us and many other community programs.
We’re deeply grateful to the individual who contacted emergency services on Friday evening and to everyone at Toronto Fire Services for their swift response. We were informed that had Toronto Fire Services arrived even 15 minutes later, we would’ve lost the entire building.
As a result of Friday’s fire, our building has experienced significant structural damage, our phone lines are down, and we will have to close our space for the foreseeable future. We are working to assess the full extent of the damage and salvage as much as possible- and we are committed to taking the necessary steps to re-open and rebuild a beautiful, functional, dedicated space for sex workers in our community to co-create and access low-barrier, judgment-free services and supports. To the best of our ability, we will be running off-site programming, but ask for your patience as we work through this difficult moment. While our phone lines are down, please connect with us at info@maggiesto.org or with specific program leads using our staff directory.
We'd like to express our deepest apologies to community members impacted by the closure of our space; our commitment to the dedicated team of staff at Maggie's who have each put so much work and so much heart into growing the organizations' programming and services; and our gratitude to all of the volunteers and community members who came through for us during our renovations just a few short months ago. Each of you were part of such an important moment in our organizations’ growth, building a beautiful, functional, dedicated space for sex workers locally that provided meaningful refuge, and access to low-barrier, judgement-free services. There are no words that capture the full extent of our gratitude for your time, effort and support in building a space that truly pushed the limits of what we thought possible for our organization.
While this fire has resulted in a great deal of damage and loss, the most important thing is that no one was injured. We have an unwavering faith in our staff, board and volunteers to meet this moment. We are committed to doing their work justice and we are confident that anything lost can and will be rebuilt- something sex workers have done across many communities, many generations, and many struggles globally. Maggie's is as resilient as our communities are, and we'd deeply appreciate your support as we rebuild.
Sincerely,
Ellie Ade Kur
Executive Director, Maggie’s Toronto
ellie@maggiesto.org | 437-256-0636
To support our work, please consider donating to Maggie's at maggiesto.org/donate or via e-transfer at boardchair@maggiesto.org.
Update 09/12/23: Our Board Chair has requested that all inquiries around this statement and related events are directed to the Executive Director. We have updated this statement to remove their name and contact details.