Shelterlink revives Black Swan Coffee House just in time for organization’s 35th anniversary

By: Emily Stewart

The Black Swan Coffee House for Change is back after being sorely missed by the community and visitors to Stratford.

Shelterlink Youth Services will host the Black Swan Coffee House on Nov. 7 starting at 7 p.m. at Avondale United Church. The event will feature performances by Barry James Payne, String Bone and the Perth County Conspiracy (Does Not Exist) and will honour Shelterlink’s support of youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness for the past 35 years.

"Whenever I'm out in the community and say ‘Oh, I'm with Shelterlink,’ someone says something about Black Swan Coffee House. It's just something that the community loved and really enjoyed and they always ask me about it and they always talk to me about it,” said Michelle Cutts, director of development.

Cutts will even receive emails asking when the Black Swan Coffee House would return from London and Toronto residents. Shelterlink had to put the beloved event on pause amid the COVID-19 pandemic and it took a long time for the organization to rebound amid staffing, protocols and burnout among staff and youth.

"We were sad to take that break during COVID but obviously we had to. It just took us a bit of time to get everything under our feet again after COVID,” Cutts said. “In the shelter system, as life went back to normal for so many people in 2022, 2023, it took us a couple more years to really get back to normal here."

Shelterlink decided to bring it back for its 35th anniversary. The organization was founded in 1991 and provides shelter, outreach, prevention and post-shelter programs for youth between the ages of 16-to-24-years-old. Cutts had mixed feelings when asked about how it feels knowing Shelterlink’s operated for 35 years.

"It's wonderful and it's not at the same time, right? We kind of all wish that we didn't have a job in some ways because us being in such demand and needing this service says something, right? It says that we have a large number of youth who are in need of shelter,” she said.

On the other hand, she said the growth of the organization and the ability to provide a safe place for youth is something worth celebrating.

"We've been able to grow and support youth through many stages of their journey and really give them an opportunity for success and that feels really good and looking back and seeing some of the great success stories that we do have, that feels really good and that's something to celebrate and to celebrate that we can keep doing that and how we can move forward and how we can help youth continue to find those wonderful and successful futures is what we want to celebrate,” Cutts said.

Tickets for the Black Swan Coffee House for Change are $35 each and can be purchased online by visiting https://www.shelterlink.org/events/black-swan-coffee-house-revival.