The year 2003 marks the 20th anniversary of the Community Information & Referral Centre in Thunder Bay. For the last 2 decades we heard and assessed expressed needs, provided information, referrals and advocacy to the people in our community. Our ability to serve the public has been primarily established through the following: responding to enquiries through our telephone helpline, producing publications, and operating our store-front Resource centre used by countless walk-in clients. Computers and keyboards have replaced rolodex files, whiteout and typewriters – and, in the process, have certainly made the mechanics of providing I & R services more efficient.

As a program of the Lakehead Social Planning Council, and with a harmonized membership in Inform Ontario, Inform Canada and AIRS (Alliance of Information & Referral Systems) we are guided by a set of standards that defines what kind of human service information we collect, how we manage it and store it, and how we disseminate it to the public. In 2003, incorporating these guidelines, we responded to over 15,000 inquiries, collected information for over 25 new programs/ organizations and updated 1550 community resource database records.

For the fourth consecutive year, and in partnership with the Community Elder Abuse Prevention Committee, we dispatched and directed calls, made referrals to appropriate resources and reported our actions to the committee. Once gain, in collaboration with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, we provided the data for the pamphlet “Where to Find Food in Thunder Bay”, a listing of local emergency food providers. Partnering with Nishnawbe Aski Nation we finalized a poster project highlighting toll-free help lines in Ontario. This poster was distributed to over 2000 organizations in Northwestern Ontario. As in previous years, we also worked with Thunder Bay Telephone to provide information for both the “Seniors Information Page” and the “Where to Go for Help” page, two special inserts of the telephone directory.

Responding to supply and demand, in September, we published the second edition of the 2003 Directory of Community Services. At the same time we produced a revised version of the Hard Times Handbook, Living on a Low Income in Thunder Bay. Two contracts with Community Information Toronto were renewed: a) Victim Support Line; to provide a telephone referral service, linking victims of crime to community resources for all of area code 807; and b) Telehealth Ontario; leasing our community resource database with quarterly updates for the nursing staff managing the 24 hour provincial health line. Concurrent with the above activities, we produced specialized lists, sector specific publications with subsets of sector data, and operated a Broadcast Fax Service.

Along with the above partnerships, Project 211:Thunder Bay was formed with United Way of Thunder Bay and other community partners as one of numerous “211” committees across the province. We join other Information & Referral providers and United Ways in an effort to bring “211” to our respective communities. “211” is a coordinated gateway offering people a first point of access to the full range of non-emergency social, health and government services in their community. The Committee has worked hard in studying the “Minimum Standards for Operating a 211 Service in Canada”. We continue our work with the United Way of Thunder Bay and share their vision that 211 will create a healthier and better-informed community.

We end this milestone year with optimism. Realistically, we acknowledge the challenges of accomplishing more with less. Furthermore we realize that our experiences of the last 20 years will help us to explore ways to best leverage our resources, expertise and knowledge for the benefit of our community. With the advent of web-based tools and sophisticated telephony, our ability to serve the public will be enhanced and more easily maintained, but the basics of a quality I&R service will remain the same – the knowledgeable, confidential, sympathetic human voice at the end of the line.

Respectfully submitted,
Marie Klassen, Program Manager