Today A-Way is a bustling enterprise with 70 employees that guarantees same-day delivery using only public transit.  While many A-Way customers started out using the service in a spirit of charity, people do not support a cause for very long unless it actually delivers on its promise.  As long-time customer Brian Iler, with the law firm Iler Campbell, will attest, “A-Way’s service has been consistently reliable, prompt and courteous.  It is precisely what we look for in a courier service.”  Today A-Way clients include many law offices, private enterprises and individuals, health and medical services, government departments, social agencies, and professional associations.

The evolution of A-Way is not your average small business success story.  It is a testament to the tenacity of people determined to conquer the “looney” and “unemployable” stereotypes.  The unemployment rate of people with psychiatric histories is about 85%, although many of them want to work. The drive to find dignified, meaningful employment for survivors grew out of the movement to de-institutionalize psychiatric patients back in the 1980s.  Unable to secure employment, many spent their days bored and aimless, often spending a lot of time back in hospital.  Very few of those who work at A-Way find themselves back in hospital now – but if they do, they know they still have a job waiting for them when they come out.  Through A-Way, the lives of some of the poorest, most marginalized members of society, have been given greater meaning and purpose. 

George Karrandjas, A-Way’s Accounting Manager, was there at the beginning and he recalls the days before A-Way was formed, “Many of us had not worked in years.  Or if we had, we worked at assembly lines in sheltered workshops that paid 50 cents an hour for monotonous and demeaning “jobs” that co-existed well with the notion of keeping people in a robotic state.  Medication, lack of opportunities, and subordination were the means to achieve the desired effects.”

“From an early age,” says George, “I always felt that I didn’t fit in and that my capabilities were non-existent.  It slowly became evident, through peer support and experiencing new challenges and successes, that I had talents that had been submerged for many years.  It took a place like A-Way that allowed a person to have bad days without being subjected to scorn.  Or to be entrusted with responsibilities that seemed unimaginable during darker days.  Having a key to the front door would be one of the simpler examples.”

Imagine where the world would be today if Winston Churchill had been subjected to maximum medication and the full weight of an oppressive mental health system for his depressive illness.  It was his good fortune to have been born a son of the ruling class and given the kind of support, resources and encouragement that most survivors will never know.  With this support, Churchill was able to fight off what he called the “Black Dog” of depression, realize his potential, and help to lead and win World War II.

The survivors from Progress Place Clubhouse and Houselink Community Homes who founded A-Way Express were not seeking wealth, power and worldwide recognition.  They just wanted to do meaningful work for reasonable pay.  With the help of community developers Jacques Tremblay and Cynthia Carlton, they waded through the research and discussions and, on June 1, 1987, they opened the doors to A-Way Express.  Since then, although they haven’t become wealthy and powerful, they have attained a measure of recognition around the world.  From Churchill’s own country, England, from Ireland, Japan, Taiwan, Eastern Europe and New Zealand, as well as across Canada, A-Way has garnered attention.  A-Way is not only recognized for being a business that “accommodates” survivors, it is hailed for being a successful business that is managed and staffed entirely by people who confront mental health challenges everyday in their personal lives. It is a model of business acumen and a tribute to the power of community.

Laurie Hall, now the Executive Director of A-Way, began as a part-time courier.  “When I started as a courier back in 1991, I was thrilled with getting a job!  I was just too crazy to work anywhere else at the time and A-Way was so accommodating.  It was great to be working with a group of people where I didn’t have to hide or be ashamed of my illness.  I learned the city, how to read the map books and get around.  I loved traveling across the city – going to buildings I’d never been to before, going up to the 64th floor of the TD Bank Tower and looking out the window.  I loved my job.”  Eventually, Laurie came to realize that many of the people she worked with had had negative experiences with the mental health system.  “I began to see that there were problems with ‘the system’ and those things that I always thought were my fault – I was a ‘bad’ patient – were actually systemic problems that needed to be addressed.”

Through A-Way, Laurie connected with the broader “survivor movement”, got involved in advocacy and policy development, and moved through the ranks from courier to Executive Director.  A far cry from the days when she was in and out of psychiatric wards, moving through a medicated haze between rooming houses and life on the streets, often contemplating and twice attempting suicide.  “When I say A-Way saved my life, I’m not being glib”, says Laurie, “A-Way literally saved my life.”

Peter Bozoki, now the Business and Special Projects manager at A-Way, also began as a part-time courier. “When I started as a courier back in 1999 I could barely manage working two shifts a week. I was simply too disenchanted with life, emotionally drained and mentally numb to be productive. Today I am working five days a week with full time hours. This is a level of employment I thought I would never reach in my lifetime and I owe this success largely to A-Way and the type of employer it is.” Peter found A-Way to be a different kind of workplace than what he had experienced before. “From the first day I started I found a sense of tolerance and an accommodating atmosphere where one doesn’t have to feel ashamed of the demons one has faced."

Having bounced around at various menial “dead end” jobs after university, Peter found A-Way to be a place where the work is meaningful, dignified and never dull. “Every day I wake up thrilled that I have a great workplace to go to and get paid to do work that I am passionate about.  Business and Special Projects Management fits well with my go-getter attitude and gives me the flexibility to formulate policy and make a real difference”, says Peter. “A-Way has proven in my case to be a prescription to a better quality of life that no medication could have provided.”

Bonnie Holmes, like many other staff at A-Way treat it as “more than a job but as a second family.  I have stayed out of the hospital while working here.”  Esther Dietch, a former courier now working in the office, has been thrilled to have found a job where she is treated with respect and kindness and loves the fact that she is performing a real service in the social justice community. With all the benefits of an innovative workplace like A-Way, the employees simply enjoy what they are doing.  A-Way has enabled many survivors to reclaim their place in the community and take back their lives.