Our Programmes
Nobody falls all at once — we work at two points on that line.
A family does not come apart in a single day. It starts with health. Then the work goes. Then the money. Then the home. Fondation Mir Héritage works at two points on that line.
Children's Gift Programme
So that no child in a family under pressure wakes up on Christmas morning with nothing to open — and no parent has to explain why.
We collect new, unwrapped gifts and give them directly to children through a free pre-registration system. Every registered child receives a gift at our event. Nobody is asked to prove anything, nobody is assessed, and nobody is turned away for not qualifying.
We ask particularly for gifts for ages 13–17. Every gift drive fills up with toys for little ones — they are lovely and easy to buy for. A fifteen-year-old is harder, so hardly anyone does it, and every year they are the ones left over.
Fondation Mir Héritage runs this programme on an ongoing basis, all year round — at our own events and with partners including MIR Productions and International Fest Canada Tour. The next gift distribution is at International Fest Canada Tour in Cambridge on 14–15 November 2026. Bring a toy. Make a kid happy.
Gifts should be new and unwrapped, in original packaging.
Fondation Mir Héritage is a federal not-for-profit corporation and cannot issue charitable tax receipts.
Community Wellbeing Programme
Because losing your health is how people lose everything else.
Untreated mental illness is one of the most reliable predictors of job loss. Losing work is one of the most reliable predictors of losing a home. The sequence is well established and it is fast.
In many of the communities we serve, mental health is not something people talk about — so help is sought late, if at all, and usually after the damage to work and housing is already done.
Services exist, but the people furthest from them are furthest from the information about them.
What we do
- A staffed table at every event, in several languages, with clear information on mental health support, employment insurance and housing help. No forms. No registration. No names taken.
- Community conversations hosted with community and faith leaders, in first languages, in the places people already gather.
- Sessions led by registered psychotherapists on the relationship between mental health, work and housing.
- "When the work goes" — practical sessions at the point of job loss: employment insurance, ODSP, rent arrears, utility help, and what to do first. The step between losing a job and losing a home is the most preventable one on the whole line, and the least supported.
- Referrals to qualified providers, always more than one.
What we do not do
We are not clinicians. We do not diagnose, assess or treat, and we do not give legal or medical advice. What we offer is reach — trust inside communities where a person will not telephone a helpline but will speak to someone from their own community at a table on a Saturday afternoon.
If you are in crisis, please call or text 988 — Canada's Suicide Crisis Helpline, available 24 hours a day.
Get involved
Whether you want to register a child, donate a gift, volunteer at an event, or simply share the word — there is a place for you here.