2nd rural summit on poverty and housing to be held on April 18th

Apr 06, 2017

Local service agencies, experts and the general public are invited to attend the 2nd Rural Summit on Poverty and Housing to work together on ways to address the unique challenges faced by vulnerable rural residents in Frontenac County. The summit will take place on Tuesday, April 18, from 1:00 to 4:00pm at Oso Hall, 1107 Garrett Street in Sharbot Lake, Ontario.

“We’re trying to keep the momentum of last year’s rural summit going,” says Louise Moody, Executive Director at Northern Frontenac Community Services (NFCS), who is co-hosting the event with Southern Frontenac Community Services (SFCSC). “As a result of the 2016 session, we’ve been exploring some of the ideas proposed.”

At the 2017 version of the summit, two presentations will be made related to housing options. Chantal Landry and Robert Diebel are Occupational Therapy students from Queen’s University who have been doing their community development placement with both NFCS and SFCSC. They will present “Shared Housing: Is this an option for Frontenac County” based on research and analysis they have been conducting.

This will be followed by a presentation titled “I Think I Can, I Think I Can – the little community that could: a model for independently-funded rural housing” presented by Fay Martin and Max Ward from Haliburton County Places for People. Following these presentations, discussion will be facilitated to consider the models presented.

“We know that local solutions are the best solutions,” says Louise Moody, “but these presentations will give us great models to consider. Will they work? Maybe. Can we adapt them? Probably. It will be a healthy discussion.”

Adds David Townsend, Executive Director for SFCSC, “Our county and townships have unique characteristics, such as a high proportion of seniors, and a vast geography that can present a lot of challenges. This is a great opportunity to view these models through a lens that is specific to our unique situation.”