It’s an opportunity to show support for Community Living Renfrew County South and the community members it serves. The local organization is promoting Community Living Ontario’s ongoing #5ToSurvive Campaign. #5ToSurvive calls on the Ontario government to provide an immediate 5 per cent boost to developmental services agency core funding, as well as Passport and Special Services at Home. The campaign asks member of the public to send a message to their representatives at Queen’s Park. Community Living Renfrew County South executive director Jennifer Lavallee says there is a big risk if the funding doesn’t come through.
Over the past 30 years, the developmental services sector has received just a 3.9 per cent increase.
“So, this is really creating some funding disparities with other sectors, we certainly can’t keep up with inflation,” said Lavallee. “Thankfully we have received the wage enhancement for our direct support staff but unfortunately our administrative staff do not fall under that category to receive that and it’s certainly creating some compression issues.”
“Right now, we do support at capacity, however there is a very long wait list within the developmental services sector and anybody that’s trying to navigate those services it can be quite a long wait for them to ever receive them,” said Lavallee. “If we don’t receive that funding from the ministry those people we serve are really at risk and we do support some of the most vulnerable in our communities between the two towns.”
The agency’s funding is used for a variety of purposes.
“It’s really as basic as keeping our lights on, and maintaining our properties and our accessible vehicles and it’s also to try and find qualified staff during human resources crisis,” said Lavallee.
How can members of the public help? Lavallee says you can follow along through social media.
They can share posts from the Community Living Renfrew County South Facebook page, using the hashtag #5ToSurvive and tagging their local member of provincial parliament.
“They can also visit the CommunityLivingOntario.ca website to learn more about the #5ToSurvive campaign and how you can make your voice heard,” said Lavallee.
Part of the campaign is sending letters to our local MPPs (John Yakabuski here in Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke), as well as Minister of Children, Community and Social Services Michael Parsa.
“So far there have been over 3,000 letters that have been sent but we can certainly use everyone’s help in increasing those numbers,” said Lavallee. “We’re all working towards the same purpose and that’s to enhance people’s lives and to help people live inclusively within their communities and without services like ours that certainly is going to affect people and the lives they live and the supports they need to be able to live inclusively.”
(Written by: Sherry Haaima)