Community Living Fort Frances and District recently opened its new Resource Centre which it hopes will serve all members of the community and not just the ones the non-profit serves.
The organization is geared toward helping adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities lead independent community lives.
The resource centre which recently opened replaces the former centre that used to be located on Mowat Ave. and closed a few years ago.
“It was different, it was smaller, and it wasn’t open to the public in the way that we’re trying to achieve with the new one,” Melville said. “We ended up purchasing a different building and it took some time to get renovations done. We wanted to ensure the renovations were geared towards people with intellectual and developmental and physical disabilities. So we spent about a year renovating the building on Scott St. We went through some surprises during the renovation which definitely delayed our timeline and throughout it all we also had to shut down due to COVID… So between COVID and the extensive renovations this has been a three year project if not more.”
The door officially opened in March as a sort of soft opening and they’ve been working to figure out how things will go at the new resource centre, Melville said.
The new centre is at 279 Scott. St. the space formerly held MPP Greg Rickford’s constituency office.
“The primary function of the Resource Centre is to provide a safe, supportive environment for the individuals in our services to enjoy new opportunities, hang out with friends, gain employment skills and make connections with others in the community,” Melville said.
The big change is that anyone can participate in most of the programming at the resource centre.
“What we decided to do that’s a little different than the past is we’ve opened up the doors of our resource centre to the entire community, to be more specific with that, we are opening our doors to public visitors,” she added.
Public visitors are expected to adhere to a basic code of conduct regarding language and intoxication etc. to be able to come in and participate.
The hope is to break down barriers between the rest of the public and Community Living’s clients.
“We would love for public visitors to stop by and help break down the systemic barriers of connection that the people we support face,” Melville said. “There’s not a lot of public buildings that are designed with the people that we support in mind and we wanted to create a space where somebody in our services could say to their friend who’s not in our services ‘Let’s go to the Resource Centre we’re having a game night,’ or ‘come meet me at the Resource Centre we’re learning cooking skills.’”
“We really wanted to ensure that the people we support have a place they can meet new people, because unfortunately for a lot of people we support, a lot of the people in their lives are paid to be there,” Melville said. “We really need to change that because loneliness shaves years off people’s lives. We’re really trying to ensure that as an agency, we put our money where our mouth is and provide the opportunities for those we support to make new friends and make connections with those outside of our agency.”
Community Living will have a calendar on their Facebook page and unless otherwise noted the public is welcome to ask to attend most of the events. The hope is that anyone coming to the centre is looking to interact with the people who are supported by Community Living.
“If a person in the community checks out the calendar and they see we’re having a paint night with Art Spark and they say ‘oh I’d like to go to that paint night.’ All they have to do is shoot us an email… The expectation is that they come here with the intention of meeting the people we support and getting to know them and just enjoying something alongside them.”
Many of the programs are free but there may be a small fee for some of them. They do offer a lunch and breakfast program at a cost of $2 but Melville says they don’t mean to take the place of other services.
“We don’t want to take the place of a homeless shelter or a drop-in centre, that’s not really the goal of the resource centre,” Melville said. “But, that being said, if somebody comes in just looking to take a break and sit on the couch for a minute and have a hot cup of coffee, we would love to meet them and they’re more than welcome but the services we provide are geared towards adults who have an intellectual disability.”
There are a variety of options for programming for the rest of July. A beading group meets regularly as well as women’s hand drumming, which is open to all genders to come and enjoy the hand drumming. They are also hosting bingo and karaoke nights.
The Centre is currently open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week. The plan is to be open as often as possible depending on the need including on holidays.
“We also may stay open if there’s people supported that could use a place to have connections during the holiday time,” Melville said. “Not everybody has a family to go to, which is the unfortunate reality. There’s some holidays we may be closed and some that we may stay open, it really just depends on the demand.”
Anyone looking to participate in programs at the Community Living Resource Centre can check out the Community Living Fort Frances and District Facebook page. Those who would like to participate in any of the programs can contact the centre at resourcecentre@clfortfrances.com
We’ve gone through a lot as an agency and people we support have gone through a lot whether it’s from the closure of institutions, to the closure of day programs,” Melville said. “Now we want to make sure that what we’re providing is on path to true inclusion in our community.”
