United Way opens ‘one-stop shop’ for social services in Listowel

Seven social services now under one roof in Listowel, thanks to building purchased by United Way of Perth Huron. Scott Miller with the story.

The ribbon has been cut on Listowel’s Access Centre. It’s an initiative of the United Way of Perth-Huron, bringing seven social service agencies under one roof.

“Oftentimes we’re helping the same people, so we can do that together. It’s a one-stop shop for folks to come to and receive support,” said Kristian Wilson, executive director with the Huron-Perth Children’s Aid Society, one of the seven social service agencies now working out of the Listowel Access Centre.

There may not be a representative from each agency at the centre every single day, but it is a safe, secure location for those in need of help to meet in their local community, instead of having to go to Stratford, where most Huron-Perth social service agencies are headquartered.

“They’re really satellite offices for organizations that have their head offices in the major urban centers in our region. And so, it allows us to provide better service. Bringing service to the people is incredibly important,” said Ryan Erb, executive director with the United Way of Perth-Huron.

The downtown building that now houses Listowel’s Access Centre is owned by the United Way of Perth-Huron, who purchased it thanks to an $800,000 interest free loan from the Municipality of North Perth more than a year ago.

The main floor will house a multitude of social services, while the upstairs is transformed into 10 affordable housing units. Some of those units will be reserved for kids who age out of Children’s Aid foster care.

“Oftentimes we have youth that exit out of care without housing. So, they become homeless or precariously housed. Now we’re able to offer some apartments for folks to transition into, where they’re still supported when they’re young adults. They’ll still receive the services they need to get into permanent housing, and just get on with hopefully, the good parts of their lives, find jobs, build life skills,” said Wilson.

“One of the exciting things is, not only do we have the service providers here that can help the community right now, but when we think that we’ve got 10 units upstairs that we’re working towards opening, hopefully within about a year, and when they’re there, if people need support, they can just walk downstairs. So, it’s a really incredible part of the partnership to have services right on site,” said Erb.

This is the third access centre opened by the United Way in Perth and Huron counties; the other two are in Exeter and Vanastra.

The social service agencies available at Listowel’s Access Centre include the United Way of Perth-Huron, United Housing, Huron-Perth Children’s Aid Society, Optimism Place, the Canadian Mental Health Association, Huron-Perth Healthcare Alliance, and the Well Community Collective.

Supportive funding came from Farm Credit Canada and the Stratford/Perth County Community Foundation.

“When people are challenged in our community and they’re struggling with something, often their challenge is with more than one thing, right? And so, we tend to compartmentalize our services. And then people end up having to navigate and go here and there, and through five different doors. So access centres allow people to come and get the help from many service providers, all at one location,” said Erb.

“We have over 30 different community programs for food security, child development, circle of security and attachment programs, to parenting drop-in programs and First Nations programs. So, this place provides an opportunity for people to come and connect and really feel the support that we do offer that’s outside of that traditional view of our organization,” added Wilson.