Rural Frontenac Community Services – the 1970’s

Jeff Green | Feb 05, 2025

It started with a meeting in November of 1970, in the rectory of the Anglican Church in Sharbot Lake. Those who gathered came to talk about the future of the communities in “the north” part of Frontenac County.

“The North” was the 8 northern townships in Frontenac County. Seven of those townships now make up Central and North Frontenac townships, and an 8th, Bedford, is part of South Frontenac. At that time, all of Frontenac County north of Verona, was known colloquially as North Frontenac.

Faced with a declining, and aging population, a lack of social services, and a need for more cohesive community spirit, the group decided to hold a full public meeting in early 1971 to talk about pulling together. A history account that was put together for the 50th anniversary of what is now known as Rural Frontenac Community Services, said that the people at the meeting “agreed that revitalising the community spirit was crucial.”

They decided to form a “communications group” as a first step. Within a month, the first edition of The North Frontenac News, a single mimeographed sheet, was published and distributed free of charge around the region. The first editor was Mervyn Rutherford and the treasurer was the Anglican Reverend, Martin Walsh. Ross Baker, a businessman from Arden, was the first advertising manager.

But the News was just the start. A formal group was formed, and received a Local Initiatives Program grant, which enabled them to establish an office space and meeting area in the basement of the church rectory, which also housed a clothing depot. The group eventually took over the whole building, which became known colloquially as the “mother ship” of the agency that developed, and remains the location of the Adult Services Centre for Rural Frontenac Community Services, at 1109 Garrett Street in Sharbot Lake.

In 1972, another grant supported community initiatives. The group developed a proposal for multi-service center funding, hiring two workers to analyse organisational and social service issues in North Frontenac. One of those workers was Wayne Robinson, who went on to a leadership position with the agency that was formally established three years later. Wayne went on to a career in business. He has provided a brief account of those years, although he said he “could write a small book” about all that took place. (see sidebar)

Over the next year, the group was able to establish a number of projects, with help from seed grants from a number of sources. Seniors clubs were established in the communities, space was provided for Children’s Aid to operate “in the north”, a federally funded employment office was established, and a summer swim program was set up in conjunction with the Lions Club and local townships.

In 1973, the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services provided funding to establish office space in the rectory and, with a management council now in place, the foundations of North Frontenac Community Services were being established.

In 1974, the need for services for individuals with developmental disabilities was identified by the management council, and an association was set up. In what became a model that was repeated often over the next 30 years, that association ended up becoming its own independent agency, known as Community Living – North Frontenac, which has become a fixture in Sharbot Lake over the decades.

By 1975, it was clear that what had started as a meeting of concerned citizens four years earlier, had become an entity unto itself, and had attracted enough attention from the Province of Ontario for the breadth of its activities, that it became the first multi-service rural hub in the province. North Frontenac Community Services (NFCS) was incorporated on March 1, 1975, with two broad missions. The first was, “ensuring residents had access to coordinated, effective social services”, and the second was to, “encourage citizens to participate in community development and problem-solving.”

The first directors of the NFCS board of directors, included: Gail Lewis - Mountain Grove, Marcel Giroux - Sharbot Lake, Peter Bell - Sharbot Lake, Clive Wilson - Sharbot Lake, Helen Vizely - Sharbot Lake, Margaret Sweet - Sharbot Lake, Albert Cox - Arden, Wayne Robinson - Parham, David Summers - Plevna, and Anne Knapp - Tichborne.

NFCS quickly established a staff complement, with funding from a provincial grant as well as program funding from many sources. The first executive director was Wayne Robinson. (see below for Wane Robinson's memories of his time at NFCS)

By 1976, there were 9 staff members working for NFCS. The purchase of the church rectory was being completed, and along with bringing social services, and medical services in conjunction with Dr. Bell's medical practice, economic development was a priority. Work was being done on what was known at the time as “the bakery project” which was eventually established as a private sector business by Anne Howes (the Rising Bun) – which was up and running successfully for over 25 years.

Housing and seniors' needs were a priority then, as they are now.

Throughout the rest of the decade, NFCS was successfully established as a service hub, and was also a testing ground for community initiatives. Not everything that was talked about ended up coming to fruition, and often the original goals changed, as projects developed over time. The quarterly newsletters that remain from that era, and the pages of the North Frontenac News, talk about concerns that are still relevant today.

The need for a seniors’ home was identified at the time, as was establishing employment services. And transportation was flagged as a problem that would be difficult to solve, back in 1977.

After Wayne Robinson left the agency in 1978, he was replaced by Larry Leafloor. An employment officer, Brad Flear, came on board, and there were several economic development officers working for NFCS in the late 1970s. In 1979, family counselling services were introduced, and the very beginnings of an effort to establish services for children and young families started to surface

The 1980s were a period of steady growth for NFCS, culminating in the opening of the Child Centre in March 1991, which brought not-for-profit, licensed daycare to the region. The 80s were followed by a more challenging period in the 1990s. Stay tuned for a look at those decades in coming editions of the Frontenac News, aka “the North Frontenac”

Wayne Robinson submission

I had travelled for a couple years to Australia and Africa after finishing at Queen’s University.  I returned home in February of 1972 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.  Marcel, Martin, Ron Gilbertson, a teacher at SLHS, Don Morrow as local businessman and Doctor Bell had formed a loosey organized community group named North Frontenac Communications Group. The group  had started producing the North Frontenac News with Martin doing the printing on the Church’s gestetner and Don Morrow delivered it throughout the area mainly using his trucking business to drop the papers off at local stores.

The Communications group had developed a relationship with St. Lawrence College and their Community Development Department run by Doug Baker.  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 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 years, The Frontenac News through the auspices of the Communication group was able to buy printing equipment and produce a much better paper, a large volunteer group produced the paper and arrangements were made with Canada Post to deliver the paper to all households free of charge.

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