$25,000 Grant for Community Living To Study Housing Needs in Northumberland County
MPP Rinaldi Announces Ontario Trillium Foundation Grant
Campbellford – Today MPP Lou Rinaldi and Clair Irwin, a volunteer with the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) announced that Community Living Campbellford/Brighton has received a $25,000 grant to study future housing needs of people with intellectual disabilities. Following the announcement and presentation of a plaque to the organization’s executive director, Chris Grayson, Mr. Rinaldi offered his congratulations.
“I am delighted that Community Living Campbellford/Brighton has taken the initiative to help address the needs of families who have loved ones affected by an intellectual disability,” said MPP Lou Rinaldi. “This is just one more step where Community Living Campbellford/Brighton has taken a key role in our community to address their essential needs.”
The OTF grant comes just in time to launch a much-needed assessment in Northumberland County. Recommendations derived from a report detailing “Community Needs” in the spring of 2003 projected housing as an urgent concern for families, especially for those with family members nearing the threshold of the aging demographic. The OTF funds will enable Community Living Campbellford/Brighton to hire a Project Coordinator to develop a network of families who will need safe and effective home support.
Community Living Campbellford/Brighton will meet with all affected families and communities within Northumberland County to get a full picture of what is needed. We hope to develop multiple models of housing and take forward business cases to all sources of funding to address the stated needs. Province-wide indicators already project aging and deinstitutionalization as major factors affecting housing over the years to come. The intent of this assessment will be to determine how much of an impact these issues will have upon existing services for individuals with intellectual disabilities in Northumberland County.
“We’re pleased we’ll have the opportunity to do some planning and develop strategies for action,” said Grayson. “This venture will help us assess and plan the next steps required to meet looming housing demands,” he added.
The Ontario Trillium Foundation, an agency of the Ministry of Culture, receives annually $100 million of government funding generated through Ontario’s charity casino initiative. The Foundation allocates grants to eligible charitable and not-for-profit organizations in the arts and culture, environment, human and social services and sports and recreation sectors.
About The Aging Assessment Program
The Ontario Trillium Foundation has awarded $25,000 to Community Living Campbellford/Brighton. The Trillium funding comes just in time to launch a much needed assessment of future housing needs for families and individuals with intellectual disabilities throughout Northumberland County.
The project, once completed, will build upon the results of the PGM Consulting & Training Services Study (March 2003) which identified a growing gap in services for clients, as they aged, in the Campbellford/Brighton area. In this report, it was recognized that Northumberland County shares similar demographics with Campbellford/Brighton. Given this statistic, the next logical step is to undertake a county-wide needs assessment of the aging population within the developmental services sector.
The Ontario Trillium Foundation funding will be used to document the county need for housing and respite services. Once the needs have been identified by community, funding will be sought from other sources for implementation of the project. Part of the focus group agenda will be to identify and gain resource/financial commitment from potential partners.
This needs assessment will be the basis of the business case for the most appropriate housing types and requirements as well as meeting and programming space for people with developmental and intellectual challenges. We will undertake a number of focus group sessions and one-to-one interviews during the project. A comprehensive database and inventory of interested partners and family members and stable funding sources will be developed.
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