AGM 2006 - Thunder Bay Homelessness Initiative

The Lakehead Social Planning Council’s Homelessness Initiative is funded through the Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative (Service Canada). This project is one part of a multi-pronged approach that seeks to reduce the occurrences of homelessness in our communities.

Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative
The Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative (SCPI), the centerpiece of the National Homelessness Initiative, was launched in 1999 in an attempt to create a more integrated and inclusive approach to homelessness in Canada. Along with providing financial support to communities, the SCPI encourages them to work together with provincial, territorial and municipal governments and the private and voluntary sectors to strengthen existing capacity and develop new responses to homelessness. Projects funded support priority areas identified through a community planning process.

Community Planning Process
In the first three years of the Initiative community plans were developed in 61 communities across the country. A key feature of the SCPI is the mobilization of the broader community to address homelessness. Communities undertake an analysis of assets and gaps, priorities are identified and funding decisions are made in support of these priorities. The Thunder Bay Planning Process was facilitated through the Thunder Bay Housing and Homelessness Coalition, a broad group reflecting the diversity of issues regarding homelessness in Thunder Bay.

Capacity Building and Public Awareness
The Lakehead Social Planning Council’s role in the Thunder Bay Homelessness Initiative will include information sharing, capacity building and raising public awareness.

We are working to customize and consolidate information for people who are homeless so that by making one contact by phone, in person, or website they can find the appropriate avenues for assistance through information provided in a user friendly style appropriate for individuals faced with housing insecurity. Two important avenues for disseminating this information to the public will be the updated Hard Times Handbook and a new card that will offer information regarding the emergency services available, such as food and shelter. This will assist individuals in their search to access housing, food, employment and support services.

The project is also working to improve the community’s capacity to respond to homelessness. We are attempting to reach this goal through the organization of a Community Forum, the publication and distribution of an information Toolkit on advocacy for responsible social policy development, and establishing a network to implement plans to influence policy on homelessness. The Community Forum and the Toolkit each focus upon giving individuals the information necessary to successfully advocate for change.

Public awareness to the realities of homelessness is being increased by utilizing the available media in our community. We are working to keep the media involved in the various events that are happening in our community that are in some manner connected to homelessness. An example of these efforts will be our attempt to have the City of Thunder Bay proclaim a “Homelessness Awareness Week”, for the first week of June.

Respectfully submitted

Aaron Park
Project Coordinator

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