Early Years

Wayne Robinson | Feb 05, 2025

I had travelled for a couple years after finishing at Queen’s University. I returned home and had only been back a couple weeks when I got a call from Martin Walsh, the Anglican Minister and Marcel Giroux about a possible job.

The College had just gotten a grant from the Federal Government to do Community Development Work in the region and they were offering the Communications group in Sharbot Lake funding for a Community Development worker for North Frontenac which at that time conceptually was from north of Verona to the end of the County north.

I met with the group and they offered me the job and gave me a blank sheet on the mandate for my work. Over the next couple years my work involved reaching out to social and health agencies who had workers covering the area and ask for them to work co-operatively in the delivery of their services. The initial players were the Social Services worker for the Province of Ontario, David Duffe, Children’s Aid worker, Cam Keeney, Employment and Immigration out of Perth and Doctor Bell and his team at the Medical Centre.

Over the next years the Organization grew and in 1975 the group incorporated and officially became North Frontenac Community Services Corporation, with a Board of Directors. The organization took over full occupancy of the Anglican Rectory and eventually purchased the building and it was financed by one of the Organization’s employees, Helen Vizely. In the early years, funding for the organization was secured with the Province of Ontario and many of the other participating agencies. It was initially a Demonstration project for the Province of Ontario for services delivery to rural communities, the only one in Ontario. I left the organization in November of 1978 and my job as Executive Director was assumed by Larry Leafloor.