LSPC Newsflash (Published Spring 2003)
Inside this Issue:
From the Executive Director
The Homelessness Initiative (Education Component)
Staff Changes
SEII : The Social and Economic Inclusion Initiative
Successful Aging
Women's Shelters Update


From the Executive Director
Duncan Adams

It's spring, it's spring!
This is our spring newsletter, and we really want it to be spring but this week the temperature was -30 again, and it was cold at the LSPC offices with little heatat our end of the mall, and cold drafts every time the door opens. But the staff have coped by wearing sweaters, thinking war thoughts, and keeping busy with lots of activities.

If you had dropped by in the office, you would have found Marie giving information to callers, Bev buried under financial statements and cheques, Rosetta dealing with the mail and telephoning volunteers, Pru deep in conversation with agencies for directory updates, and Duncan either away at a meeting or gridning his way through computer e-mails. Sounds like a typical winter day at the LSPC offices.

How do we do it? We do it with volunteers. We have volunteers who manage the agency by donating time and expertise in serving on the Board of Directors. We have more - a dedicated crew of volunteers who help out at Bingo (and we could use more help here!), and some volunteers like Liz, Anne Susan and Pru who help out at the office a few hours a week. And there are all you volunteers who send a cheque as financial support for the Council. Thank you. It's great to have you all with us.

There's lots of exciting happenings that you can read about in this newsletter. If you see something that interests you, call us at 624-2330 and speak to any of the staff directly, for program updates, and information on how you can help.

Just some advance notice of our Annual General Meeting in June. We hope to see you then and renew friendships face to face.


The Homelessness Initiative (Education Component)
Linda Gambie

For the past 11 months, the project staff has worked diligently in providing valuable information to organizations, service providers, the community-at-large, individuals needing immediate assistance, the homeless and individuals at risk. Unfortunately, our program will be ending on March 14th.

We believe we have been successful in continuously striving to increase public awareness on issues surrounding homelessness through advertising, pamphlets, newsletters and speakers bureaus. Our website is up and running and continues to be updated on an ongoing basis. It can be accessed at www.hardtimes.info.

In ending, remember that 30% of the population is only 1 pay cheque away from being homeless!


Staff Changes
Duncan Adams

With all the happenings at LSPC, we welcome some new people to our offices.

Jennifer Wolfe arrived in January as our Manager of Community Relations and Development. We hope she will be with us for the next three years, while her position is supported by a Trillium Foundation grant. She will be working with the Board of Directors and the Fundraising Committee to look at LSPC's fundraising activities, and develop strategies to help keep the council solvent on a long-term basis.

If you are a reader of our newsletter, Jennifer may be contacting you about ideas and contributions to the LSPC. The board hopes to have a successful new theme to focus our fundraising and Jennifer will play a part in some great new ideas. One goal of Trillium funding was to increase our newsletter production to four times a year, and we have given Jennifer the responsibility of the newsletter production. So you will hear from and see more of Jennifer in the coming months.

Mark Walther was hired in February as a contract Information Technology worker. Also supported by a Trillium Foundation funding, Mark will be a trouble shooter for the agency computers, helping us to get technical solutions to our computer problems (like networking and viruses!) and getting us into the 21st century for computers. We celebrated last week when we threw out our last dinosaur, a 15 year old 386sx (remember when?). Mark owns his own company, Thunder Bay Information Technology Solutions (www.tbayit.com), and he will use some of his skills to help us update LSPC's webpage (do you like the new version, quite a change!) All that, and Mark only works part-time with us.

Unfortunately, we have to say "good-bye" to some staff. Funding from Human Resources Development Canada for the Education Component of the Homelessness Initiative has come to an end, and our three staff will leave us near the end of March. Keri Beerthuizen, Lorrie Dundas and Linda Gambie have been here for a year doing wonderful things about education and homelessness. Lorrie has developed a webpage, and you have seen editions of the newsletter "HomeWord" as well as the recent billboards on homelessness. We aren't sure where these creative people are going, but we hope they have had a good time here at the LSPC and wish them all the best as they move on.


SEII : The Social and Economic Inclusion Initiative
John Saxberg and Scott Bulmer

The project title does not describe the exciting process that has been unfolding. In the last year, the Social Planning Council Network of Ontario in conjuction with Health Canada (Public Health Branch), six Social Planning Councils throughout Ontario, community groups/agencies and concerned individuals, have held roundtables, workshops and meetings in order to develop proposals for their specific region. Each region has chosen a target group that it believes to be excluded socially and economically, and has put together its own project proposal aimed at helping these groups become closer to the policy-making process in their specific areas. Health Canada studies show that this result will improve the health outcomes of both the target groups and the communities involved.

In Thunder Bay, the leadership has chose to work with teenagers at risk-specifically, sixteen and seventeen year olds. This group is economically and socially disadvantaged if they are not receiving parental support, because neither the Children's Aid Society nor Ontario Works consider this group to be part of their primary mandate.

The project decided upon for Thunder Bay is called "The Youth Action Network". Basically it is a network comprised of youths, adults and commnity patners who collectively address issues, pertaining to youth ages 16 & 17 that result in "unhealthy communities". The YAN's goals are to:

• Promote and facilitate positive intergenerational and multicultural communication
• Explore and respond to youth issues
• Address ageism and negative stereotyping of youth
• Educate the community on youth issues

Overall, health outcomes are directly related to ones social and economic status. So the YAN has been developed to close the distance between youth and community members/partners who can assist/support the youth in having a voice in matters that promote exclusion and result in long term negative health outcomes.

There are many aspects of the project where people can get involved. Some of these include: becoming a mentor, working directly with the leadership committee, hosting meeting space and becoming involved with fundraising/sustainability planning.

To get involved contact our project staff by, phone at (807) 624-2343, email at sbseii@tbaytel.net and fax at (807) 625-9427.

And visit our project website at www.closingthedistance.ca


Successful Aging
Lee Stones

The Successful Aging Project has had a busy winter thus far. We have done major revisions to the web page and expect the new & improved version of the site to be operational within a couple of weeks. Besides upgrading the content, redoing the homepage and adding a lot of new graphics, we have also added the following:

• A new page of healthy recipes
• A new page on jokes and humour
• A new "meet the team" page
• Changed the chat room to a bulletin board
• Added an online journal on Successful Aging
• Added an editorial page

We are delighted to report we are getting lots of traffic to the site; we are rated 86th out of 16,000 on Google. We are 12th in Canada on Google. We are also doing well on other search engines. We are really pleased by these numbers.

The coordinator's hours will be cut back dramatically as she is going to be working on an Elder Abuse Project. A lot of the web work will be contracted out. The coordinator will continue to oversee the site and maintain the questions area, answer all emails and trouble-shoot where necessary. Please go to see the revised site. We think you'll find us on par with any health related site on the Internet.


Women's Shelters Update
Jennifer Wolfe

Many of you have heard of the recent notice of closure received by the Community Residence Women's Shelter. That was early December 2002, and since then, there have been several meetings of citizens and organizational representatives who came together in a coalition against this announcement of closure. Lakehead Social Planning Council which was a key player in the establishment of the community residence a few years ago, has been represented by a board member, Rae Anne Honey, Brenda Reimber as a private citizen, and the Executive Director.

At the latest meeting of the coalition on February 28th, we know that the closure notice has been withdrawn, which is a success item for the coalition. However, we remain cautious of any Ministry strategic plan that would reduce services in the name of cost cutting or "service system management". The beds and services at the Community Residence Women's Shelter are a valuable link in the social safety net, and these resources should be strengthened, not reduced. The issue is also tied into funding for homeless women and children, who may or may not be victums of VAW (violence against women).

The next coalition meeting is March 19th. The community coalition may have won this battle, but we all need to be vigilant about maintaining the quality and quantitiy of services available in our community.