Rural Summit: Poverty/Homelessness in Frontenac County

Jeff Green | May 11, 2016

After spending two months interviewing service providers, people with 'lived experience' of homelessness and/or poverty in Frontenac County, and interested community members, Kim Allen was ready last Friday, May 6, for the key event of the project she was facilitating, a rural summit at St. James Church hall.

The summit came about when Louise Moody, the Executive Director of Northern Frontenac Community Services, with support from Southern Frontenac Community Services, secured a grant from the United Way to fund a rural summit. Kim Allen was hired to pull it together.

Participants included front-line social workers in Frontenac County; agency representatives; guests from other communities who have worked on the issues that arise from poverty and homelessness; township and county politicians, including three of the eight members of Frontenac County Council; and community activists who are itching to make a difference.

The meat of the gathering was what Allen described as a modified version of a World Cafe. Participants were seated at tables, and a question was posed for discussion at each of the tables. A note-keeper was appointed at each table. After a few minutes, everyone but the note-keeper stood up and moved to another table. Throughout the day participants moved from table to table and discussed their response to a series of questions.

The first question was general, asking why the topic was important to people and what they hoped the day would accomplish.

Before asking any further questions more detailed information was presented. After sharing the results of some of the research she has done, Allen introduced Tabitah Morton, who is the data analysis co-ordinator for the Ontario Early Years Centre. While Morton is tasked with collecting data about children under the age of six, a lot of the data she uses applies to the general population. She outlined the difference between the northern and southern parts of Frontenac County and Frontenac Islands, and talked about the metropolitan influence of Kingston and how it wanes the further north you go. Another presenter, Dierdre Pike, a Senior Social Planner, newspaper columnist and community engagement expert from Hamilton, talked about how other communities have come together to bring about social change. Pike, who might have been a stand-up comedian in another life, also lightened up the tone of the proceedings considerably.

The rest of the day was devoted to dealing with three further questions. One dealt with people's responses to the presentations, and a second sought ideas, or seeds, that can be used to find real solutions that will have an impact on the lives of people in Frontenac County. The third question, “What needs immediate attention going forward”, resulted in seven proposals for further action, which were then looked at by the group as a whole.

Participants came forward to put check marks beside proposals they supported. They wrote their names beside proposals they not only support but are willing to work on, and they circled their name if they are willing to take the lead pushing a proposal forward.

The results will all be gathered in a final report, to be released in June.

On the day, four of the proposals drew high levels of support. One of them was to look at a model that has been put into practice in Haliburton County. A group has renovated abandoned properties as interim places to live for people who need them. With support, rent had been paid for these properties, allowing the group to expand the stock of temporary housing over time.

Another proposal was to build a small, off-grid house using inexpensive materials and volunteer labour. Using a design put forward by Geoffrey Murray from Granite Ridge Education Centre, the small house could be built for $50,000 in his estimation, and would be suitable for youth trying to establish themselves in Frontenac County.

A third idea that was popular was more process- oriented. It talked about a group of people getting together to form a sort of pressure group to make sure that Northern and Southern Frontenac Community Services, the local township councils, and Frontenac County address the issues raised at the summit on an ongoing basis.

It falls to Frontenac County Council to ensure that the Frontenac County initiative receives its share of attention, and funding from the City of Kingston, which has received provincial funding to work on a ten-year housing and homelessness plan for itself and Frontenac County.