# data[].attributes.body
“Home.” Home, www.cathycrowe.ca/.

# data[].attributes.body
“Department of Politics & Public Administration.” Ryerson University, www.ryerson.ca/politics/about-us/personnel/visiting-scholars/crowe-cathy/.

# data[].attributes.body
Breen, Kerri. “Toronto Street Nurse Cathy Crowe Receives Order of Canada.” Global News, Global News, 25 Jan. 2018, globalnews.ca/news/3985472/toronto-street-nurse-cathy-crowe-receives-order-canada/.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Cathy Crowe, a well-known Toronto street nurse and activist, was among 47 invested into the Order of Canada on Wednesday.

At the ceremony in Ottawa, Crowe was honoured for her decades of advocacy on behalf of those experiencing homelessness.

READ MORE: Rally at Toronto City Hall calls for more shelter beds for homeless

"As one of Canada's first street nurses, Cathy Crowe has devoted her career to using health care for social justice," Crowe's official recipient's citation stated.

"Through her creative and tenacious efforts as a social activist, she has bridged the issues of health and homelessness with a goal of making housing available for all."

In 1998, Crowe co-founded Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, a homelessness advocacy group that was active until 2012. She has also worked on several documentaries - one called Street Nurse - and wrote a book, Dying for a Home: Homeless Activists Speak Out, published in 2007.

READ MORE: Toronto officials call for added measures to bolster shelter beds for homeless

Crowe has been vocal as Toronto's shelter system grapples with a lack of spaces to house the city's most vulnerable residents this winter.

I'm told there is a flu outbreak at Seaton House. @JohnTory get the shelter money to open new shelter beds! Get capacity to 90 percent.

- CathyCrowe (@cathyacrowe) January 24, 2018

The Order of Canada has been awarded by the Governor General since 1967 for achievement in community service.

Actor Mike Myers and soccer star Christine Sinclair were among those who received honours at Wednesday's ceremony.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Toronto street nurse Cathy Crowe receives Order of Canada

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Cathy Crowe, a well-known Toronto street nurse and activist, was among 47 invested into the Order of Canada on Wednesday. At the ceremony in Ottawa, Crowe was honoured for her decades of advocacy on behalf of those experiencing homelessness.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Crowe, Cathy

Title:

Distinguished Visiting Practitioner

Doctorate:

Honorary x 5:
Victoria, McMaster, Ottawa, York (Can.), Windsor

Telephone:

416-979-5000 x 3282

Biography:

Cathy Crowe is a Street Nurse in Toronto. She prefers to be called a Street Nurse - a term coined about 20 years ago by a homeless man at the corner of Sherbourne and Dundas in downtown Toronto. She points out that at that time there were only 4 or 5 street nurses in Toronto, perhaps even Canada, compared to probably 100 now, from Victoria to Halifax. That, in itself, makes a powerful statement about the extent of homelessness. She has worked in the area of homelessness since 1988.

Cathy obtained her diploma in nursing from Toronto General Hospital in 1972, her Bachelor of Applied Arts in Nursing from Ryerson in 1985, and her Masters of Education (Sociology) from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in 1992.

Cathy follows the pulse of health issues affecting homeless people including shelter conditions and inadequate housing, the return of tuberculosis and even bedbugs. Along with remarkable colleagues, homeless activists and friends she has fostered numerous coalitions and advocacy initiatives.

In 1998 she co-founded the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee (TDRC) which declared homelessness a National Disaster. The disaster campaign is a three level campaign targeting federal, provincial and municipal solutions to the homeless disaster and housing crisis. Its signature 1% slogan refers to the demand that all levels of government commit an additional 1% of their budgets to affordable housing.

Cathy is a frequent commentator and writer on issues related to homelessness. She has taught a course at Ryerson called Homelessness in Canadian Society. A documentary film on her work titled 'Street Nurse', directed by Emmy and Gemini winner Shelley Saywell, aired on the Women's channel in the fall of 2002.

Cathy has received a number of honours. In June 2001 she received an Honorary Doctor of Science in Nursing from the University of Victoria in British Columbia. In the fall of 2003, Cathy received an International Human Rights Award in Nursing in Amsterdam from the International Centre for Nursing Ethics. In June, 2005 she received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from McMaster University in Hamilton; in 2008 she received an Honorary Doctorate of the University from the University of Ottawa; in June 2010, an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from York University (Canada); and in June 2015, an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Windsor.

From 2004-2009 she was the recipient of the Atkinson Charitable Foundation's Economic Justice Award and worked both locally and nationally on issues related to homelessness. During her fellowship she authored Dying for a Home: Homeless Activists Speak Out (Between the Lines, 2007).

Cathy is currently the voluntary Executive Director of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. She has also been the Executive Producer of Home Safe Calgary and Home Safe Toronto, a national documentary film and community development project on homeless families and children, with filmmaker Laura Sky.

Ryerson University appointed Cathy Crowe Distinguished Visiting Practitioner in 2013.

On 30 June 2017, His Excellency, the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada named Cathy Crowe a Member of the Order of Canada. See news story here. The investiture took place on 24 January 2018 in Ottawa. See news story here. Hear interview with Ryerson Today here.

Selected Publications:

Dying for a Home: Homeless Activists Speak Out (with Nancy Baker, Brian Boyd, Bonnie and Kerre Briggs, Kevin Clarke, The Colonel, Dri, James Kagoshima, Marty Lang, and Melvin Tipping). Toronto: Between the Lines Publishers, 2007.

"Fresh Air: The Fight Against TB." In The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto's First Immigrant Neighbourhood, eds. John Lorinc, Michael McClelland, Ellen Scheinberg and Tatum Taylor, 56-59. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2015.
In the Media

What I learned from a year in my yoga pants, Globe and Mail, 23 January 2011.

Saint Cathy Crowe street nurse profile nabs award nomination Canadian Health Care Network, September, 2010.

How nurses can become advocates for those living without housing to improve their health. (Interview by Rob Fraser) nursingideas.ca, 23 March 2009.

Fund affordable housing, not war (Op/Ed), Toronto Star, 15 November 2007.

People deserve housing (Op/Ed), Toronto Star, 16 July 2007.

Toronto cool to heat-wave planning (Op/Ed) Toronto Star 31 July 2006.

Fixing hot spots for society's powerless, Toronto Star, 22 July 2006.

Humanity Above All. Atikinson Charitable Foundation: Annual Report 2005, July 2006.

April 24, 2006 - Report: Justice and Injustice: Incarceration and Homelessness in Toronto

Street Nurse Cathy Crowe Receives Honorary Doctorate, 09 June 2005.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cathy Crowe - Politics & Public Administration - Ryerson University

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Crowe, Cathy Title: Distinguished Visiting Practitioner Doctorate: Honorary x 5: Victoria, McMaster, Ottawa, York (Can.), Windsor Telephone: 416-979-5000 x 3282 Biography: Cathy Crowe is a Street Nurse in Toronto. She prefers to be called a Street Nurse - a term coined about 20 years ago by a homeless man at the corner of Sherbourne and Dundas in downtown Toronto.

# data[].attributes.body
Project #3: Home safe - a film about homeless children with sky works.
-She is the executive producer fulfilling a long time dream to make a movie the film engages children and their parents and gives them a voice and will provide a community development and organizing tools for years to come

# data[].attributes.body
Project #2: Toronto disaster relief committee (TDRC)
- She co-founded the TDRC that is when they declared homelessness a national disaster and helped put the issue of homelessness on the national radar.

# data[].attributes.body
Project #1: Building housing with st. Clare's Multifaith housing society.
-She wanted to learn how to build affordable, social housing in 2001 st. Clare's converted 25 Leonard ave in Toronto in to 51 unit of affordable housing.

# data[].attributes.body
Cathy Crowe is a street nurse, educator, author, social justice activist and filmmaker,  specializing in advocacy for the homeless in Canada.

# data[].attributes.body
Cathy obtained her diploma in nursing from Toronto General Hospital in 1972, her Bachelor of Applied Arts in Nursing from Ryerson in 1985, and her Masters of Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in 1992

# data[].attributes.body
-Dying for a home: Homeless activists speak out.
She published this book in 2007