In 1981 Four Kingston women purchased a house in downtown Kingston to offer as an independent meeting space to individuals and groups. In 1983, The Kingston Community House for Self Reliance was incorporated as a non-profit charity. Since then, it has been home to hundreds of organizations, projects, and fun activities. Currently KCHSR hosts 50-60 gatherings a month. The house has historically provided an incubator space for organizations that then moved on to their own premises and a larger community presence.
Their guiding principle has always been to include everyone interested, to keep fees low and to encourage the kind of peer support and community focus so needed these days. And they have delivered on those principles for 40 years. Except for one problem. The house, beautiful as it is, is built on 5 levels and therefore extremely difficult to make accessible. In the quiet times during Covid, they developed a multi-facetted plan to correct this.
The goal was to provide an accessible entrance, meeting room, kitchen, and washroom. This will be the organization’s biggest undertaking ever. Upon completion KCHSR will have better traffic flow, better meeting facilities, and achieve their desire to include everyone in their Community House family. The fundraising required to pull this off is daunting. They have already received support from the Kingston Rotary for exterior upgrades to a new entrance. Tom’s Landscaping and Trousdale’s Home Hardware have also answered the call for community assistance. And more is needed and appreciated to reach their $60,000 goal.
How to donate:
Kingston Community Credit Union has provided $10,000 seed money to start KCHSR toward their interior renovation goal of $60,000. You can help too! All donations large and small can be sent to treasurer@kingsoncommunityhouse.org. Charitable donation receipts for donations of $30 or more can be provided.