After more than a year in the works, city council has endorsed a plan to bring a community connection centre to Orillia.
With the goal of helping vulnerable residents connect with the broader community, the plan is to create a one-stop shop for people experiencing mental health and/or addictions issues to access support, resources and services, as well as serving as a drop-in site to use basic services like electricity or internet.
At Monday’s council meeting, city politicians supported the idea in principle and agreed to forward a request for $100,000 to the 2025 budget deliberations later this fall.
Brought forward by the addiction and overdose crisis working group, the idea for a community connection centre dates back to March 2023, when council agreed to investigate potential local strategies to tackle the opioid crisis.
Coun. Janet-Lynne Durnford, a member of the working group, explained there are three potential avenues for the city to take with implementing the centre: partnering with a local not-for-profit, numerous not-for-profits, or collaborating with a parent organization that can bring various service providers under the centre’s roof.
“We know that this has to be a multi-partner service, and … we know that there are partnerships potentially with, for example, Couchiching Ontario Health (Team), Couchiching Family Health Team, the hospital, the county and many, many different not-for-profits,” she said.
While the funding’s exact use has yet to be determined, Durnford said it will demonstrate the city’s commitment and enable it to apply for a variety of grants to help support the project.
“This funding allows us to say, ‘Yes, the city is committed. We’re going to move forward,’” she said. “We’re going to look for space, if that’s what we spend the funding on, and by the time it comes to budget, I am hopeful that we will have a much clearer idea of exactly how that money would be spent.”
With the province recently announcing a ban on new supervised consumption sites, Coun. Tim Lauer questioned what forms of harm reduction could be included in the connection centre.
“Given that we’re attacking addiction and overdose, what’s left in the harm-reduction file that could be offered at this particular site?” he asked.
While safe consumption sites are often among the first measures that come to mind, Durnford said, harm reduction is broad in scope and includes “anything that reduces harm,” and the connection centre will help to bridge the gap between people seeking help and services that can assist them — whether detox, treatment, mental health support, or more.
“I think the direct answer to your question is the main service that we’re looking to provide here is system navigation,” she said. “What we’re hoping to provide is one space where people build connections with the community, know that they have community support, which is essential for recovery, and can actually get answers to the question of where can they access these services?”
During discussion, Coun. Ralph Cipolla suggested the city ask the County of Simcoe to contribute to the $100,000 request, as individuals from beyond Orillia are likely to use the community connection centre as well.
