Won't you play some simple melody
Like my mother sang to me
One with a good old-fashioned harmony
Play some simple melody

Ave Verum
(Musical setting: W. A. Mozart)

(Hail, true Body, born
of the Virgin Mary,
having truly suffered, sacrificed
on the cross for mankind...)

Since the founding of AJOI (Action Jeunesse de l'Ouest-de-l'Île ) in 2007,
the organization has noted that the lack of accommodation resources in the West Island of Montreal
has become a persistent problem for people who experience homelessness
or who are at risk of experiencing homelessness.

In 2010, AJOI workers began documenting the problem of homelessness.
As a result, they discovered that hundreds of individuals live in unstable
conditions every year in the West Island.

In 2016, thanks to the support of PME MTL West Island,
an opportunity study was carried out to assess the feasibility
of a social economy project including a shelter-type resource
in the West Island.

In 2017, AJOI founded Ricochet (Hébergement · Homes),
a community accommodation center that offers accommodation and support solutions
for people experiencing residential instability in the West Island
and surrounding areas.

In 2019, Ricochet is officially recognized as a charity by the
Canada Revenue Agency.

Click above for the
concert Programme

Open up your door my friend,
And let me come in
Come in from the firefly darkness,
To hear your stories again...

In every heart there is a room
A sanctuary safe and strong
To heal the wounds from lovers past
Until a new one comes along...

I will love you more than me
And more than yesterday
If you can but prove to me
You are the new day...

Abandon entouré d'abandon,
Tendresse touchant aux tendresses
C'est ton intérieur qui sans cesse
Se caresse, dirait-on...

(Devotion in circles of devotion,
Tenderness touches tendernesses…
It is your inward that incessantly
Caresses itself, so they say...)

There is a place I call my own
Where I can stand by the sea
And look beyond the things I've known
And dream that I might be free
Like a bird above the trees
Gliding gently on the breeze
I wish that all my life I'd be
Without a care and flying free...

(Tracy Davidson, soprano)

Auprès de ma blonde
Dans les jardins de mon père,
Les lilas sont fleuris;
Dans les jardins de mon père,
Les lilas sont fleuris ;
Tous les oiseaux du monde
Viennent y faire leurs nids...

(In my father's gardens
The lilacs are blooming
In my father's gardens
The lilacs are blooming
All the birds of the world
Come to make their nests here...)

Oh, won't you come with me
Where the Wood River flows?
We'll watch it meander slowly
As the sky turns from red to dark
And as that sun goes down
We'll throw our arms around
Each other and tell the dreams
That are deep in the heart...

English translation:
Somewhere there must be
The first harmonic sound,
Somewhere in the vastness of nature, hidden.
It is in its mighty spread and breadth,
In the distances between galaxies,
It’s in the brilliance of the sun,
In small flowers,
In the breezes through forests...

Now is the month of maying
When merry lads are playing
Fa la la la la la la la la
Fa la la la la la la la
Each with his bonny lass
Upon the greeny grass
Fa la la la la la la la la
Fa la la la la la la la...

J'entends le moulin
(Tique tique taque)
J'entends le moulin (taque)
Mon pere a fair batir maison.
(Tique tique taque taque)
J'entends le moulin
(Tique tique taque)
J'entends le moulin (taque)...

Look to the day
When the world seems new again:
Morning so fresh
You could touch the sky;
The earth smells sweet
And ev’ry flower looks bright,
Shining in a dewy light
As you wander by...

(At the Manoir Westmount)

When every heart
Joins every heart
And together yearns for liberty,
That's when we'll be free.

When every hand joins every hand
And together moulds our destiny,
That's when we'll be free....