Apr 08, 2020


The personal touch is one of the features of the services offered by both Southern Frontenac Community Services (SFCS) and Rural Frontenac Community Services (RFCS).

The two agencies have been around for decades, each providing a basket of services for residents of South, Central and North Frontenac. They are bootstrap agencies, created and maintained locally as a way for Frontenac County residents to look after each other.

In Sharbot Lake, the Adult Services building, on the hill between the Anglican Church and the Soldiers Memorial Hall, is a services hub for adults and seniors in need of financial assistance, counselling, legal help, and more. Meals on Wheels and other seniors programs are administered out of the Adult Services building. The Child Centre in ‘uptown’ Sharbot Lake is a resource centre and the home of a licensed daycare and the EarlyOn program as well as a youth program. RFCS also operates a full time EarlyOn centre in Sydenham.

The Grace Centre in Sydenham is a community hub for seniors in South Frontenac and rural Kingston, operated by Southern Frontenac Community Services. It is home to the Grace Café, a very busy Adult Day program for the frail elderly, and many other recreational programs. SFCS is also very active in food services, operating a busy Meals on Wheels program, and the South Frontenac Food Bank.

All the services listed above are delivered with a human touch. Direct contact with agency clients is the way of doing business for both RFCS and SFCS.

Until now.

“It was clear, early in the pandemic, that we needed to close the Grace Centre to the public because the population we serve is at risk from COVID-19. This was before a lot of the general restrictions came into force,” said David Townsend, executive director of Southern Frontenac Community Services.

The agency’s focus shifted quickly to providing service for seniors while keeping staff members and clients safe. They have a telephone reassurance program in place now, to keep in touch with clients and their families, and are keeping other services such as home maintenance and in-home respite going, but only on a special need basis. The transportation program is also still running, for medically necessary rides and as an essential delivery service for food and medicine.”

“Food services are very important in a time like this, and our goal and mission now, is to make sure people are able to stay home. Our hot Meals on Wheels program is pretty much at capacity at 60 clients on Tuesdays and 50 clients on Thursdays, but we are able to get as many frozen meals out for seniors who need them,” said Townsend.

In addition to frozen meals ($5), one litre containers of frozen soup are available as well as a lite menu (soup, roll, and dessert).

Perhaps the biggest change in service is happening at the Food Bank. Instead of following its normal intake, the Food Bank is now open to any community resident who needs assistance.

“Our numbers jumped as a result, from 48 families in February to 70 in March and April is looking just as busy,” he said.

For Rural Frontenac Community Services, providing cradle to grave support for families in Central and North Frontenac, and the EarlyON program throughout the county, has been a challenge, but at least one new opportunity to serve has surfaced.

“We are doing the best we can to use virtual means to keep in touch with people. Our counselling service is operating that way, and the youth program staff are working online, showing kids different activities they can do while at home. Staff are also doing telephone reassurance calls to vulnerable clients and seniors,” said Louise Moody, executive director of RFCS.

“We are also working with others to try and help youth access wifi in order to download materials, and enable them to do school work. We have been looking at libraries but the service is spotty,” she added.

While other programs are quiet, Meals on Wheels has ramped up, and many seniors’ programs are still being delivered to the home.

“We have now expanded Meals on Wheels to 3 days a week, and we have added an extra route in North Frontenac as well. We have a number of new people calling about Meals on Wheels, in order to stay closer to home, and we are continuing to do respite and home help, with the necessary restrictions,” she said.

Frontenac Transportation Services (FTS), which normally provides rides for a variety of purposes, is still available for essential rides only, mainly to medical appointments that cannot be put off. FTS has also been working with a group in Sharbot Lake that has sprung up to co-ordinate delivery of groceries, medicine, and take out food in a effort to help the public and local businesses in Central Frontenac.

“FTS is providing dispatch service for the Sharbot Lake and Rural Frontenac COVID-19 support group that has started up. They have some volunteer drivers of their own and some of our FTS drivers are helping out as well. It’s a way we can help keep people at home.”

Both Moody and Townsend said that they have received assurances about funding support from the Ministry of Health, and that they are trying to anticipate how community needs will change in the coming weeks.

Support local
independant journalism by becoming a patron of the Frontenac News.