Nursing program expands beyond St. Francis Table

The Health for All Partnership (HAP) has quietly expanded far beyond its original walls next to the Capuchin Franciscan-run St. Francis Table and is sending Humber College nursing students throughout Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood to transform the way a new generation of nurses sees the people they serve.

The program originated three years ago as a free clinic next to St. Francis Table on Queen Street West in the heart of Parkdale, one of the city's most diverse neighbourhoods.

On Nov. 26, the partners will gather at the Capuchin charitable restaurant and community ministry for “Knowledge Café” to share what they have learned in the last few years and chart a path forward for further growth. 

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Since the late months of 2023, when roughly 300 people sought care at the pop-up clinic, six full cohorts of final-year students from Humber’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program have rotated through the HAP program. What began as a small, on-site service has grown into a deeper collaboration, complete with monthly steering-committee meetings with the Capuchin friars, regular health fairs at the nearby St. Philip Neri Parish and even outreach walks with City Street Outreach that bring care directly to unhoused residents. 

Heidi Siu, a professor in the nursing department at Humber, says the experience has remained truly transformative for the students themselves. 

“ I think students first come without knowing what they're getting themselves into in a way, sometimes even with a lot of hesitancy or presumptions about what it means to engage in community-based care and service. However, and not just from a project lead standpoint, but even from a nursing lens, it has been really heartwarming when we see the transformation from those feelings into active service take place throughout the term as they're doing their placement at the clinic,” said Siu. 

The same shift has also been observed in the clinical instructors who supervise the students across all three HAP sites — the students have gone on to serve at Peel Family Shelter and Toronto’s Mennonite New Life Centre as well as St. Francis Table. 

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Project leads Siu and Frankie Burg-Feret, who now supports HAP on a voluntary basis, hope the Knowledge Café gathering will not only celebrate the community impact but also generate practical ideas to keep the model alive and, ideally, make it replicable for other schools and agencies long after the current funding ends.

“ The HAP Clinic is going to continue as long as we get funding, and that is just the reality,” Burg-Feret said. “To be able to take the model and run with it to meet people where they are would be great, but we have to note the established trust these communities have had with their communities, many for decades, like St. Francis Table and Parkdale.”

“We hope to explore that as well as viable ideas, options and supports for this clinic to be something that becomes a model of care that we could implement as something long-standing and sustainable not just here, but with other schools and agencies as well,” Siu added. 

Guests at St. Francis Table have long been served hot meals with dignity in Toronto on Queen Street West. The HAP program has extended this, said Capuchin Friar and long-standing animator Br. John Frampton, who shared his praise for the HAP Clinic and all that it has brought to St. Francis Table over the past three years. 

“ I said from the start that while we have always provided food for the hungry, having the health clinic here (allows for) a more holistic approach to our program. Our guests are getting fed physically, but by adding health care to it, they're now getting their issues looked at, which only adds to our ministry,” he said, confirming that students will return for the winter semester starting in January. 

While both Siu and Burg-Feret are looking forward to the Knowledge Café as an opportunity to present the research results for the program, share evidence of its continued impact, celebrate its community connections and further refine the HAP model, they both hang their hat on what the program has since provided both the people who deliver and receive its graces. 

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“We have students talk about how they would have never walked up if they saw somebody who was unhoused on the street, that they would have been fearful or just walked aside. Now, they feel a lot more confident and willing to engage in a conversation, and those little moments are important and impactful,” Siu said. 

“When you think about people coming across your care, you should be treating everyone like a person and a human being other than the disease or other than the health care they may need, and so that has been a real benefit for all involved that has grown and been supported.” 

A version of this article appeared in the November 15, 2026 issue of The Catholic Register with the headline "Nursing program expands beyond St. Francis Table".