Assisted Living community hub opens in Belle River
Assisted Living opens neighbourhood service hub in Belle River
Cayl Blais says it would be “very, very difficult” for him to live independently in his Belle River home without the help he receives from Assisted Living Southwestern Ontario.
The Assisted Living staff who come to his two-storey home daily help with chopping vegetables, vacuuming and cleaning, especially upstairs.
“I have an upstairs but I can’t use it,” said Blais, who suffered a brain injury when he was 17 that left him with physical limitations on his right side.
The 32-year-old spoke of his challenges at Assisted Living Southwestern Ontario’s newest community office, which was officially unveiled Tuesday inside Belle River District High School. The organization provides inhome assistance to adults with physical disabilities and senior citizens throughout Essex County and into the Sarnia-Lambton region.
Their youngest clients are 16 and the oldest is 104.
With the addition of the Belle River location, Assisted Living Southwestern Ontario now has 14 community hubs as part of its Neighbourhood of Care initiative. Until forming a partnership with the Greater Essex County District School Board for classroom space inside Belle River secondary, Assisted Living clients from the area had to travel to a community hub location near Lauzon Road and Riverside Drive.
“I don’t drive, so that meant I had to get a ride with my mother or father,” Blais said. “This helps tremendously because I can walk here.”
The partnership was made possible by the Ministry of Education’s community hubs capital funding program, which allowed the board to renovate an unused classroom with an accessible washroom, kitchenette, storage lockers and a wheelchair ramp.
Erin Kelly, the board’s director of education, was on hand for Tuesday’s announcement.
Kelly and board trustee Julia Burgess spoke about the opportunities the partnership opens for Belle River students looking for community-service hours and possible co-op placements. “This firmly implants a mindset of community service here and will enhance the Nobles reputation as caring, concerned citizens,” Kelly said.
Lynn Calder, executive director of Assisted Living Southwestern Ontario said each hub oversees services for 25-40 area clients. Overall, the organization has a waiting list of 900 people seeking support services and “that goes up every day,” she said.
Calder said the involvement of high school students is an “integral piece” of this partnership.
She envisions students helping out with yard work, household chores or providing much-needed tech savvy when it comes to programming television remote controls or navigating a FaceTime conversation or a Google home system.
“It’s extremely important that we break down these silos so we become part of the school and the school is a part of us,” she said. Staff from Assisted Living Southwestern Ontario started working out of the Belle River hub in late January, and Calder hopes to have her first wave of student volunteers on board in the near future. Down the road, Calder would like to see them establish another community hub in the Leamington-Kingsville area. “We’re already serving quite a few people in the Leamington/ Kingsville area we just don’t have a hub there,” she said. Assisted Living Southwestern Ontario is funded through the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Ministry of Community and Social Services. It has been providing comprehensive support services in Windsor/Essex for 80 years.