Success Stories
 
The Bang The Drum program offered by St. Christopher House strives to create rewarding experiences within its community and create opportunities for the wide range of our members. We recognize the challenge of meeting their individual needs and the dedicated group of volunteers and staff work hard to understand their unique goals and our committed to helping them achieve success.

Many of our members access our resources to find employment or to increase confidence and productivity on the job.

For example, Marilyn is a recent graduate of an office training program at Bang The Drum. She began with very little experience using Microsoft Word and was very nervous and intimidated by computers. Her goal was to become more productive on the job and rely less on others. After a month and a half of weekly classes she is now able to create fantastic letters, labels, and even do a mail merge. Marilyn has become so confident now she is going to become a tutor!

Aijun's Story: "My name is Fang lin. I came to Canada in April 2002. I have been here for more than one year. Last month I landed a job at the CN Tower, so I am working as a System Support Analyst. For me, it is not easy. During my past year, I worked as a volunteer in Bang The Drum at St. Christopher House. I learned a lot from the employees there. They gave me encouragement and a chance to put into practice my theoretical knowledge about technology. When I came to Canada I did not know about the concept of a community center at all. During the first half year of my life in Toronto, I just stayed at home and had a lot of Microsoft and Cisco exams. After that I felt very bored at home. I asked for some advice from my friends, they told me that one has to go out and get to know about Canadian society. One night during my walk I saw a poster outside St.Christopher House: Volunteers wanted, so I decided to try to volunteer there and get to know a lot of persons. I talked with the Bang The Drum program worker Songyu . At first I gave some Computer lessons. After one month, Bang The Drum called me to tell that there was a valuable opportunity of setting up a VPN (Virtual Private Network). I felt so excited because I wanted to find a job in the computer security area, and Bang The Drum gave me a great chance to use my knowledge. To land a job here in Canada local experience is the most important thing for a newcomer. They set up two desks for me in Bang The Drum and bought some important reference books for me to use. They had a Bang The Drum Speakers series program for volunteers to practice our English and polish our resumes. They also gave me a chance to give a presentation about VPN. During the presentation they corrected my English pronunciation. Through volunteering there, I got a lot of opportunities to get to know real Canadians like: John Stapleton and Susan Pigott. I am sure that this experience helped me gain self-confidence and advance my future career. I have been there for more than six months. Time goes by really quickly for me. I really want to say thank you very much to all the staff at Bang The Drum and St. Christopher House for making my landing in Canada so much easier and helping me land a job. For me and my family it has been a very valuable opportunity to get the chance to participate in the community through this program and the St. Christopher House organization."
 
In addition, members with a wide range of disabilities have benefited from our programs. Jorge was a case of a member who had suffered from a brain injury. He was unable to type or handle the mouse. However, after working with a typing tutor he gained the skills to type a thank-you letter and play a game of solitaire.