Thousands of Renfrew County residents benefit from local organizations

The County of Renfrew has received a report on the agencies that have received support through the social services relief fund.

Included were 19 organizations and 23 community gardens spread out across the region.

Information shared included the name of the agency, a description of services provided and the number of people served.

Thousands of residents living in Renfrew County and District benefited from the services.

Ontario has invested $562 million in social services relief funding since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Arnprior & District NeighbourLink Fountain

Purchase and delivery of meals throughout the year to seniors, shut ins, and less fortunate individuals. Each delivery consisted of 350 meals – 5 deliveries in the year for a total of 1750 for the year.
Purchased gift cards for gas, food from two different grocery stores and from Giant Tiger. There were
approximately 188 x $25 cards distributed to clients as they were needed.
Funding allowed us to continue our work to provide physical, emotional and spiritual needs in our community during stressful and difficult times.
Serves 538 people

The Grind Pembroke

After hours homelessness support
Purchase and preparation of lunch food
Purchase and delivery of food boxes
Increase hours for COVID Assistant (health, safety, wellness)
Cost of addition rented van to deliver meals to people in the community.

Crisis Line Calls: 120
Referrals to hotels: 68
Take-out meals: 17,901
Meal deliveries: 4,031
Emergency food boxes: 188
Wellness checks: 162

Robbie Dean Family Counselling Centre

Enhanced counselling program and outreach services including 530 individual clients received virtual support:
Clinical team added 2 PT counsellors and 1 PT intake worker
Clinical hours were increased by 50 hours per week
Intake to services went from 4 hrs/wk to 18 hrs/wk
Secure platform was purchased for virtual counselling
Equipment was purchased for counsellors to have voice/text data inputting system
Training in virtual counselling was provided to all staff (admin and counselling)
Pembroke office was relocated to a space that supported COVID restrictions
The Centre began working on developing a mental health & addiction support program for the indigenous population of Renfrew County who do not meet the funding mandate of First Nations

530 individual clients received direct counselling.

2 – twelve sessions grief and loss support groups
2 – six sessions anxiety & depression groups
1 – nine session anger management group for men
2 – nine sessions trauma recovery groups

Community Information Centre of Ottawa

Purchase effective headsets for our team answering and making sure that the information in our database was up to date about services
build surge capacity by having more staff hours to keep the database up to date with so many more changes to services and programs.

From June 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021 – 640 people contacted the Community Information Centre of Ottawa from the County of Renfrew – a 50% increase from the previous year.

North Renfrew Family Services

Basic needs program, to assist community member vulnerable to financial crisis. Financial assistance could include food and or gas vouchers. Utilities, homelessness prevention to name a few.
Maintain Counselling services to meet the need of our North Renfrew Community, while maintaining community safety in respect to the COVID pandemic.

Basic needs program: 87 individuals

Counselling services: 202 individuals

Community Resource Centre – Killaloe

Distribution of grocery vouchers to individuals/families in need
Distribution of fuel vouchers
Assistance with purchasing propane (heating fuel)
Assistance with purchasing firewood (heating fuel)
Delivery of food hampers to people facing transportation barriers and illness

185 Families

344 Adults

319 Children

29 Seniors

Total Served = 692

Boys and Girls Club

Purchased PPE
Provided weekly food support by way of offering grocery gift cards to families in need
Provided weekly home cooked meals
Provided craft supplies and provided weekly art kits to the children/youth in our organization

129 individuals

Columbus House Pembroke

Residential Program:

2 additional computers for the residents to do on-line learning
Programming materials such as art supplies, crafts, and books to enhance their creativity while ’sheltering in place’.
19 young parents and 20 children.

Young Parent Support Program:

8 Chromebooks for the young parents to assist them with on-line learning as well as connectivity with facilitators
Programming materials, and educational materials for the moms, age appropriate toys/crafts for the children, and supplies for the infants.
12 youth in the residential program

Big Brothers Big Sisters

Maintain one Mentoring Coordinator and partial support from the Ottawa agency to continue to support the existing 90 matches in Renfrew County.
Intake and enrolment delivered 100 hours in virtual orientation & match support workshops, mentor support training and child safety training.
Mentees met with their mentors weekly totaling over 7000 hours of building healthy relationships. Staff conducted match support check-ins with parents, youth and mentors, including weekly or monthly phone calls, emails and/or in person/virtual meetings
Match support check-ins collected qualitative data to measure progress of the mentoring relationship and outcomes. Totaling over 2000 contacts between parents, youth and volunteers
BBBSRC delivered 15 holiday hampers to families in need, these contained gift cards for groceries and gift cards for holiday gifts for the entire family
Delivered 15 cell phones
Provided 12 youth with summer activity kits and and/or winter clothing kits

Directly impacted – 90 youth

Indirectly impacted – 1000 (includes families, and extended network of youth)

Intake and enrolment – 270 participants including families and mentors

Renfrew and Area Seniors’ Home Support

• Intensive marketing campaign to reach isolated seniors and Difficult to capture the number
adults with disabilities within Renfrew County.

In partnership with local media both print and radio we were able to promote and inform this population of the services that were still operational, i.e.: Transportation, Frozen Meals, Hot Meals, Security Well Being Check.

Difficult to capture the number of people who received services with this funding. Our county-wide agencies did see a tremendous increase in the request for services especially with our Meals on Wheels
Program where we provide both frozen and hot meals to clients.

Arnprior Optimist Club

Funded all local Arnprior elementary schools for their breakfast and/or snack programs
Assisted 2 students with funding for employment
Mother’s Day gift basket which was given to five moms who had been struggling through COVID-19
Dr Seuss Scavenger Hunt! Planned a community outdoor scavenger hunt for the kids in our community. Our members dressed as all of the favorite Dr Seuss characters and set up stations around town. Every kid received a small treat and toy. We also had 5 winning gift baskets for families who completed the entire scavenger hunt. The gift baskets included a family board game, movie, snow slides, gift certificates to local stores and some treats for the kids.

Breakfast Program: 100 (approx.) children daily when school is open
Student employment Support: 2 students

Mother’s Day: 5 mothers plus their family’s – 20 people total

Scavenger Hunt: 220 people (parents and children) attended our scavenger hunt!

Family and Children’s Services/ Safe Shelter for
Youth

Grocery Bundles and Delivery. Staff engaged with the families, purchase the required groceries and essential items, and deliver the Grocery Bundles
Safe Shelter expenses include motels/hotels, residential home host costs and staffing. This also includes providing them with food and essential supplies, mediation support with their families and support in connecting them with the resources they need to live their independent life.

Families Supported with Grocery Bundles and Delivery: 188

Children/Youth Supported with Grocery Bundles and Delivery: 413

Youth Supported via Renfrew County Safe Shelter for Youth: 44

County of Renfrew

Homelessness Prevention

Rental arrears
Utility arrears
Rent supplement
Moving expenses
Assistance with groceries and necessary supplies
Last month rent deposit
Repairs to necessary appliances

Number of people served: 347

Community Support Services

Arnprior-Braeside-McNab Seniors at Home Program Inc., Renfrew and Area Senior’s Home Support Inc., Calabogie and Area Home, Eganville and District Seniors, Barry’s Bay and Area Senior Citizens Home Support Services, Carefor Health and Community Services, (Renfrew County), North Renfrew Long Term Care Centre – Community Support Services

Senior’s Centres Without Walls –Making this program more robust and coordinated throughout Renfrew County
Transportation –Hiring of drivers and purchasing of vehicles
Expanded meal delivery and medical transportation services
IPADs –outfit each CSS agency with IPADs for lending use to seniors and disabled adults so that they can participate in a variety of virtual sessions from their home, where they can
Enhanced Cleaning –provide CSS service agencies with the needed health and safety measures to either begin or continue to provide programming and services for seniors and disabled adults

Support provided to 500 seniors and disabled adults

Community Housing

Grocery gift cards to tenants in community housing including those in non-profit housing (note: this was done twice in the year)

Support provided to 1258 people

Renfrew County Housing

(including the 5 non-profit housing)

(note: this work is ongoing in 2021 as per MMAH)

Touchless Entry to buildings, into laundry room and garbage
Touchless Elevator Call system• Enhanced playground space
Improved fencing in units where physical distancing is agreement limited

850 housing units

EarlyON Programs, Renfrew County

Gift Cards (grocery store, gas station, to purchase PPE items/sanitary items, taxi vouchers)
Food Garden Projects (seeds, plants, soil, mulch, fertilizer, garden accessories)
Personal Hygiene Bundles (hand soap, shampoo/conditioner, deodorant, body wash/soap bars)
Children’s Care Packages (diapers, wipes, lotion, formula, nursing pads, prenatal nutrition vouchers)
Children’s Cognitive Learning/Wellness Kits (activities and materials to support mental health and well-being of young children)

Support provided to 1960 people

Renfrew Presbyterian Church

Purchase and install live-streaming equipment in our building to provide: worship services; celebrations of life for those who had passed on; Blue Christmas Memorial tribute; Online Christmas programming; a weekly hymn presentation; a monthly “Afternoon of Music” program that featured our music director and occasional guests; a connection with residents in Long-Term Care facilities and Retirement homes, and most recently with the 3rd floor patients of the Renfrew Victoria Hospital for worship and fellowship. Online programming has stretched beyond the borders of our community of Renfrew and surrounding area – we have witnessed residents throughout Renfrew County establishing a connection through the outreach programming we offer.

Support provided to 1500 to 2000 people

Renfrew County Legal Clinic

Two sound stations for telephone hearings with clients in Renfrew and Pembroke;
Two laptops with Microsoft office and anti-viral software for video-conference hearings
Plexiglass barriers to meet with our clients to execute documents like wills and powers of attorney’s for seniors’

Number of people served: 100

Community Gardens

Arnprior: Arnprior-Braeside-McNab Seniors at Home Program,

Killaloe: Community Resource Centre (Killaloe) Inc., Killaloe & District Housing Inc

Palmer Rapids: Township of Brudenell, Lyndock and Raglan Recreation Committee

Barry’s Bay: Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College

Golden Lake: Algonquins of Pikwakanagan

Laurentian Valley: Alice & Fraser Recreation Centre/Shady Nook Recreation Centre

Deep River: Community Center Management Committee, Deep River and Area Horticultural Society (2 locations in Deep River)

Pembroke: Champlain Trail Museum, City of Pembroke-Keeping Pembroke Beautiful Committee-Pembroke Carefor Community Gardens, Studio Dreamshare

Renfrew: Town of Renfrew, Parks, Recreation and Facilities Department

Petawawa: St. John’s Lutheran Church, Parish Council, Petawawa Horticultural Society, Civic Centre, Community Services Department Petawawa

Eganville: Bonnechere Union Library

Renfrew County Housing Buildings: Locations in Renfrew, Arnprior, Pembroke, Deep River and
Palmer Rapids

In addition, the following food banks were supported with food security:

St. Josephs Food Bank
Petawawa Pantry
Enji Madinamage Midjim – The Sharing Place Food Bank (includes a hot meal program)
Killaloe Food Bank
Madawaska Valley Food Bank
Algonquins of Pikwakanangan First Nation
Deep River and Area Food Bank
Renfrew and District Food Bank
St. Vincent de Paul St. Columbkille Conference (includes bag lunch program)