About Us
Welcome to the Surrey Place Centre Charitable Foundation. We are committed to supporting the work of Surrey Place Centre. With your contributions we can help make profound differences in the lives of children, youth and adults served by Surrey Place Centre.
Surrey Place Centre provides specialized clinical services that are responsive to individual need and promote health and well-being in the Toronto region. In addition to the direct service role, Surrey Place Centre facilitates system-wide access to information and supports. Since 1966, Surrey Place Centre has continued to expand from a modest outpatient clinic to a modern, state-of-the-art facility employing hundreds of highly skilled staff. Specialists from various disciplines work together to develop and carry out a customized service plan for clients, in order to meet the unique needs of each and every client. Together with the Centre we are committed to supporting the social inclusion of people with developmental disabilities, autism spectrum disorders and visual impairments.
As a partner with the Centre we work to ensure that your contributions are available to:
- Continue to enhance existing Surrey Place Centre Programs and Services
- Support new and innovative programs to enrich the lives of Surrey Place Centre clients
- Support important research and education initiatives in the areas of developmental disabilities, autism spectrum disorders and visual impairments
- Improve Surrey Place Centre facilities in responding to service requests
How clients have benefitted from your generosity:
- Client Needs Fund
- Psarologos Toy Drive
- Ilonka Szabolczi Toronto Autism ABA Services Clinical Classroom
Client Needs Fund
The Client Needs Fund was established by the Surrey Place Centre Charitable Foundation in 2003 from the generosity of our donors.
The goal of the Client Needs Fund is to provide financial assistance to clients with specific economic challenges or needs. The financial assistance will allow clients to register in specific programs or purchase specific personal items that will enhance their independence and quality of life.
The following are examples of how the Client Needs Fund has improved the quality of life for Surrey Place Centre clients. The financial assistance we have provided has allowed our clients to:
- Obtain birth certificates for children of the clients
- Install safety locks for doors and windows for their home
- Purchase weighted blankets for sensory needs
- Purchase toiletries
- Acquire strollers for parents to transport their children safely
Staff of Surrey Place Centre may access the Client Needs Fund to provide one-time financial assistance to their clients. The staff person and the Program Director will work with the clients to ensure the additional supports meet their needs.
Psarologos Toy Drive
In 2008, Mr. and Mrs. Psarologos embarked on a journey that would make a profound and lasting difference in the lives of so many Surrey Place Centre clients. They decided they were going to invite all their friends, family and children to an indoor playground during the holiday season as a way to get together and catch up. However, they wanted the gathering to be special and decided on it becoming a toy drive with the hope that it would serve as a great reminder as to what the holidays were all about. The Psarologos family also wanted to teach their one year old about the gift of giving and the importance of making a lasting difference in people’s lives.
Mr. and Mrs. Psarologos are now the proud parents of three wonderful and energetic children, Marinella, Antonio and Sebastian. In 2010, their son Antonio was born with Down syndrome and they decided to contact Surrey Place Centre as soon as they were discharged from the hospital.
In the family’s own words: “At 2 weeks old, we received a visit from Surrey Place Centre staff and from there we had a path to follow. We had the pleasure of attending weekly music classes, baby sign language sessions as well as receiving therapy sessions at home. During this time, we met our ‘extended family’ from staff to other parents and that’s when we decided to change the name of our toy drive in our son’s honour, and direct our focus towards fundraising for Surrey Place Centre.
It is our commitment to contribute to Surrey Place Centre through our toy drive and fundraising event. We hope our journey will encourage other clients and their families in also finding their own path. It has been our honour placing smiles on the faces of so many Surrey Place Centre clients and their families over the years.”
To date the Psarologos family has donated over 2000 toys and $25,000. We are grateful for their growing commitment to the Foundation and proud to include the family as an ongoing supporter and donor.
For more information on the Psarologos Family please visit the Helen & Greg Psarologos website at www.psarologos.ca.
Ilonka Szabolczi Toronto Autism ABA Services Clinical Classroom
Ilonka Szabolczi, wife of Miklos Szabolczi left behind a legacy of generosity, compassion, a love for music and a profound love for the people in her life. She helped her friends and donated generously to numerous causes, but did so discreetly and quietly, without any fanfare. There is a good deal to celebrate about Mrs. Szabolczi; she was strong, savvy, and had a great passion for music. She was an accomplished and professionally trained, award-winning pianist, winning prestigious awards in competitions in Europe. She taught many young people an appreciation for music at Western University, as well as within the community where she gave numerous private lessons. Surrey Place Centre Charitable Foundation was one of many organizations to receive a generous financial contribution from the estate of Ilonka Szabolcizi. In turn Surrey Place Centre Charitable Foundation worked with Surrey Place Centre to develop a state of the art Toronto Autism ABA Services Clinical Classroom that is being used every day in order to treat children and youth who are registered in the Toronto Autism ABA Services at Surrey Place Centre.
In the words of a Supervising Therapist at the Surrey Place Centre Toronto Autism ABA Services:
“Having our own clinical classroom has allowed us to build a client-centred space to meet our clients’ special needs. The clinical space also includes a two way mirror which has permitted parents and caregivers to observe the groups without causing interruption to the clinical treatment session. The observation sessions are also planned as an education opportunity to educate parents on how they may transfer the skills they are observing in session to their home.”
Ilonka Szabolczi touched countless lives and made an enormous difference too many people and her legacy will long be remembered. Surrey Place Centre named the clinical classroom in Ilonka Szabolczi’s honour.