With Dryden and Machin’s Community Safety and Well-Being Plan approved, now the work begins.
Marcel Penner, Chair of the committee and Director of Mental Health & Addiction Services at the Dryden Regional Health Centre was a guest at the Rotary Club of Dryden’s virtual meeting Wednesday to discuss what’s next.
One of the main goals under social development is to have emergency housing in place.
“The Kenora District Services Board would be one of the key organizations involved in the development of a shelter so yes, there are definitely conversations about the funding possibilities of building a shelter.”
Residents had the opportunity to have their voice heard and contribute to the plan through a spring survey
“350 responses highlighted addictions as a concern in the community, so out of the whole survey 50.22 per cent of the respondents identified that concern and that has been an ongoing conversation both with the risk response team and individuals who come to our table,” says Penner. “There are also some interesting correlations I think between that, lack of housing, mental health concerns. A lot of these issues are integrated and they’re not obviously simple.”
Penner continues, “It’s important to have conversations and know that if that’s happening, how do we make this a safer community? And when I say safer, I mean safer for all. That includes those who may be affected by it as well as people struggling with the substance abuse concerns.”
The plan, passed by both councils his summer, contains four pillars with various goals and designated groups of support agencies for each.
When it comes to funding, Penner says that’s the advantage of working in pillars because there’s access to different funding opportunities to make goals a reality.
Penner does say there is some work and advocating to be done at the ministry level to make accessing funding easier.
You can read the full plan here.
