Enriching lives through experiences and services that honour Italian culture and heritage.
Inspiring people to explore the Italian in all of us.
Compassion, Integrity, Transparency, Collaboration, Excellence, Respect and Diversity.
Villa Charities Inc. (VCI) was established in 1971 as the Italian Canadian Benevolent Corporation (ICBC) with a mission to raise funds for and develop, administer and coordinate projects in the health, social, cultural and educational fields, which would establish the concept of ‘community’ for Italian-Canadians and their families.
Since then, the organization has transformed and grown to adapt to the needs of the changing community around us. As a registered charity, Villa Charities’ mission is to enrich lives through experiences and services that honour Italian culture and heritage. For more than 50 years across the GTA, the organization has provided cultural and educational programs and supported culturally sensitive long-term care and independent living apartments for seniors. We fulfill this mandate through a broad range of activities, services and facilities, both directly and in conjunction with our affiliates and independent organizations. The Villa Charities affiliates include Columbus Centre and Joseph D. Carrier Art Gallery; Villa Charities Foundation; Villa Colombo Toronto; Villa Colombo Vaughan and apartments for independent seniors Caboto Terrace, Casa Del Zotto and Casa Abruzzo. Each of these organizations is an integral part of the Villa Charities family with separate legal status and its own governance Board.
For the past five decades, VCI has played an important role in supporting the Italian community and advancing the appreciation and promotion of Italian culture. Today, Villa Charities also attracts an increasingly diverse non-Italian community who enjoy Italian culture through many programs and experiences.
Villa Charities Inc. acknowledges that we are on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. Villa Charities Inc. also acknowledges that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Williams Treaties signed with multiple Mississaugas and Chippewa bands.
We are grateful to have the opportunity to create and work on this territory.
