Subsérie 05 - Community House, 301 Vidal Street South

0.3 cm of textual records

This subseries contains a history of the Vidal Street South Community House in Sarnia of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of London, Ontario. The Sisters resided in a region between Ontario and Michigan at the southernmost tip of Lake Huron. The neighbourhood had a high concentration of impoverished people living in an area bordering “Chemical Valley,” a tightly packed industrial cluster of petrochemical facilities. The records document the ministries of: Sister Loretta Janisse, Superior, and head nurse of rehabilitation at St. Joseph’s Hospital; Sister Diane Drouillard, teacher at St. Peter’s School; and Sister Mary Margaret Howard, pastoral assistant at St. Joseph’s Parish, in Sarnia. The subseries also contains a record of the community goals of the house dubbed the “Constitution,” written in 1986. The Sisters wrote about learning from their environment and developing supportive relationships with the residents, many who were transient, unemployed, single parents, families in need, and the elderly. The Sisters wrote about sharing experiences with their immediate neighbours, a group of former psychiatric male patients in a special needs boarding home. They also wrote about living on the margins to connect better with people in poverty, because they believed all people were valuable no matter how much society pushed them to the edge. In addition, the Sisters wrote about their weekly house meetings to discuss topics such as justice issues, family life, community life, work and leisure, Advent and Lent, the Cursillo Grouping Method, and the Beatitudes Program.