Making newcomers feel at home with free tickets to Toronto attractions

Immigrants face a number of challenges when settling into a new city and integrating into an unfamiliar community.

A charitable organization is working to make the transition to life in Toronto smoother for newcomers by breaking down barriers that prevent them from participating in the city’s rich and varied cultural experiences.

Kids Upfront Toronto, one of six chapters of the country-wide organization, provides newcomer families with free tickets to events and attractions they might otherwise not be able to experience — including concerts, sports games, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and Ontario Science Centre among many others.

The tickets are donated by organizations like the Toronto Blue Jays, ROM and Mirvish Productions to name a few, as well as individual donors.

“When families come to Toronto, the moms and dads and guardians, their first priority is of course safety and housing and food,” explains executive director Lindsay Oughtred.

With the necessities of life taking up most of their resources, other areas like mental health, connecting to the community and exploring the city and all it has to offer to take a back seat. Kids Upfront helps to fill in that gap.

“We’re able to give these opportunities to these families and they provide a chance for the family to have a break get out, in a safe, new, meaningful environment, have some fun and engage,” says Oughtred.

“But I think the biggest thing for sure would be these [experiences] are giving families the opportunity to be welcomed in Toronto, to feel included and part of the action and for children, that is so important.”

“We want them to understand what Toronto is all about”

Tickets are distributed through a number of community partners like the Eastview Neighbourhood Community Centre.

Executive board member Razia Dawood explains that often, the newcomer families they serve are escaping difficult situations in their home countries and have experienced a tremendous amount of trauma.

“The family’s going through mental health issues, not knowing they’re going through mental health issues. There’s no outlet for them. It’s just the day-to-day life — you wake up, you go to school, you come home, you do your homework. You go to bed. Many of them don’t even get to leave their house … just because life takes over,” she said. “And with the stresses that they have, they’re not going to Google ‘What can I do with my kids?'”

Dawood says informing them of the numerous experiences the city has to offer and directly providing the opportunity to take in some of them goes a long way in relieving that stress and helping them engage with the larger community.

“Giving them this opportunity to, for a few hours, be happy, forget their troubles … just taking them away from their day-to-day life … it’s so important,” said Dawood.

“We want them to understand what Toronto is all about … they deserve more than anybody to go out and experience all of these things.”

The Equal Opportunity Community Initiative (EQCI) also partners with Kids Upfront. Board member Sean Kelly reiterates that with all the challenges of getting to Canada and securing the basics of food and shelter, newcomers’ mental health and emotional wellbeing are often overlooked, especially in children.

“Statistics have found that the psychological impact on children and mental health is twice that of their parents for newcomers,” he explains.

Kelly says engaging with their surroundings and experiencing the culture greatly improves the immigrant experience in Toronto and boosts the quality of life.

With tickets from Kids Upfront, EQCI facilitates that enrichment by not only distributing them but often helping families get to the events and back as well.

“When we open our doors and we just make the right connections — those tickets are available, those seats are empty. When we get someone who’s deserving into those seats, it can be life-changing and so rewarding … and plays such a critical role in becoming a part of the community, which is what newcomers want.”

Kids Upfront now reaching 85,000 children

Aafreen Shaikh, who came to Toronto from India with her family as an eight-year-old, says a trip to the Ontario Science Centre helped her do just that.

“As a child, I think it gave me a lot to connect with my peers with. I think that’s something a lot of newcomer kids face — the inability to get along with your peers So I feel like going to the science center, for example, is something like a lot of kids in my neighbourhood did. So it allowed me to kind of connect with them on that level and talk about what we saw,” she said.

When they first landed in Toronto, Shaik’s parents were both working two jobs and as such, they were unable to find the time or funds for family excursions. Going to a Dr. Seuss musical via Kids Upfront not only helped facilitate some quality time but created a core childhood memory.

“It really allowed us to get that family time … and experience something new and fun together, which is always really important to do as a family,” she said.

“I also have two younger brothers and so for them, it was really fun … the Dr. Suess play that we went to is something we still all talk about. I’m 25 now he’s 20 and we still talk about it because as a child, it was such a fun experience and it was just so different.”

When they first launched in 2005, Oughtred says Kids Upfront was reaching between 3,000 to 4,000 kids. Over the years, that number has grown to 85,000.

What was initially called the “Can’t use your tickets” program has been renamed to “More than a Ticket” to better reflect the variety of offerings they have.

“We’re also now receiving things that aren’t tickets — passes, virtual music lessons. With COVID-19, we reached kids in a whole new way virtually — a drama lesson, a cooking lesson, a yoga class, summer camp spots,” she explained.

“We have grown and evolved to really make it all about experiences.”

As part of a belated 15-year celebration that was postponed for two years due to the pandemic, the organization is hoping to raise awareness and invite people to continue to donate their tickets, bookings and experiences as events return to the city.

Oughtred says she hopes the pandemic has stirred some empathy among people and they will be inspired to give.

“I think people now, more than ever, have a real sense of what it’s like to be socially isolated. I’m hoping those who are fortunate enough to have access to tickets can really see what it’s like to be socially isolated [as many newcomers are],” she says.

“If you can’t use your tickets … we’ve got kids waiting in the wings dying to go to events. We are here, we want your tickets … and we will make sure they get used by deserving children.”