| Apr 04, 2013


n an ongoing effort to boost its public profile, Community Living - North Frontenac has launched a new website (communitylivingnorthfrontenac.com), which provides information that is useful to potential clients as well as to the community as a whole.

“It has been a goal of ours, and the website is part of this, to be an integral part of the communities in North and Central Frontenac,” said Community Living-NF Executive Director Dean Walsh. “We do that through our annual BBQ, through the services offered by the Treasure Trunk and by participating in events, and the website is another part of that effort.”

The website includes a history of the agency, a description of services for adults, families and children, the home share program, vocational services, and person centred planning, as well as other information about the agency. It also includes an extensive photo gallery showing Community Living members at events throughout the region.

“Putting together the photo gallery was one of the most important parts of building the site,” said Community Living staff member Joe Jarvis, who built the site.

Long-time Community Living board member Bob Miller said the site will be useful to the agency as it reacts to the ongoing changes in the way the agency receives funding and how it supports families in and around its official catchment area of North and Central Frontenac.

“There is always change in the way governments provide funding,” said Dean Walsh, now entering his second year as executive director, “but the site shows that the agency is really about the members and clients of the agency and the staff that supports them.”

“We need to continue to work on our public profile,” said the agency's Co-president Bob Miller, “as we face funding challenges and some of the realities that families face in this region.”

According to both Walsh and Miller, two cohorts of people are increasingly at risk: young adults with developmental disabilities who are leaving the school system after high school, and families with ageing parents no longer able to provide ongoing support for their adult children.

One thing that Community-Living NF is loathe to do, and this is reflected in the website and in all of their operating guidelines, is to set up formal group homes.

“We may help set up communal living situations and provide extensive support to clients, but when one of out staff members visits a client it is with the client’s consent. We don’t own property or run any kind of institutions. That is not our way of doing things,” said Walsh.

Another challenge faced by Community-Living concerns the way clients are funded.

“When people come to us with needs now, we can’t immediately provide support. The process is different, funding applications are different. But what we can do is start working with the family immediately to identify needs, and help them find a way to get service,” said Dean Walsh.

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