THE TLC COMMUNITY

TOOLS. LIFE. CONNECTION

**THE TLC COMMUNITY * ALTHEA FERNANDES**

Tools. Life.

Connection.

A Durham Region Community Wellness Initiative built on a simple belief - that health is something we practice together, not alone.

MISSION

What we're doing today

I'm building spaces across Durham Region where rest, connection, self-care, and joy are practiced together - bringing residents and local health and wellness providers into the same room, the same conversations, the same community.

Through gatherings like the TLC Celebration Gala and the events I hope to grow from here, I create room for honest conversation, meaningful growth, and the kind of rest we all need but rarely give ourselves permission to take.

VISION

Where we're going

A Durham Region where rest isn't something you have to earn. Where self-care is woven into daily life, not reserved for crisis. Where neighbours check in on each other, where providers and residents sit at the same table, and the line between "the people who care for others" and "the people being cared for" disappears — because we're all doing both, together.

This is the future I'm building toward, one gathering, one connection, one community at a time.

Making Durham Region well again.

MEET ALTHEA FERNANDES

Why I started

The TLC Community

I started The TLC Community because I kept seeing the same thing - people running on empty, doing self-care in isolation, with no community around them to rest, connect, or simply be well together.

With over 20 years on the frontlines of healthcare, I've seen what happens when wellbeing is left to individuals alone - providers and residents both. That's when I realized health was never meant to be done in isolation. It's meant to be practiced together, as a community.

I've trained as a paramedic, worked as ER staff, a research assistant alongside orthopaedic surgeons, chiropractors, and physiotherapists and now I run my own therapy practice. I've sat in a lot of different seats in this field. And through all of it, one thing has stayed true: this work is deeply meaningful, and without the right support and community around you, it can also be deeply isolating and draining.

That loneliness doesn't just affect providers. It affects the people they serve too. Residents trying to practice self-care without a community to do it with. Everyone doing it alone, in silos or not doing it at all because there was no space to do it together.

That's the gap I started The TLC Community to fill. Not with a program or a service but with a space. A space to rest, to connect, to celebrate, and to simply be together. Because I believe Durham Region deserves to be well and that happens together, not alone.