Harrowsmith centre officially opens its doors

Jun 03, 2010

Beth Clancey, Mary Meyers and Dorothy Cornwall at the Open House at the SFCSC’s new Harrowsmith Centre

With much fanfare and community celebration the Southern Frontenac Community Services Corporation (SFCSC) held the official ribbon cutting and Open House at the Saint Paul’s United Church manse in Harrowsmith, which now has officially become known as the SFCSC’s Harrowsmith Centre.

The centre will be the new home to a number of services offered by the SFCSC, including one of two seniors’ day-away programs, bereavement and end of life counseling programs, as well as the entire family services department, which offers the Food Bank, Rent Bank, and Good Food Box programs, plus a number of other family-related services and referral services.

The SFCSC serves just over 1000 seniors in its catchment area and the program at the Harrowsmith Centre will be serving 12 seniors per day on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays.

Beth Clancey, who is the adult day services co-coordinator at the centre and runs the seniors’ program there, gave tours of the new facility and expressed her own and her clients’ delight in the new centre.

“The facility allows us to provide more care to more people and it is really all about expansion. It allows us to do more activities as well. We feel great to be able to serve clients on more than one level and can now better serve families in both the Sydenham and Harrowsmith communities.”

At 101 years old, Dorothy Cornwall of Sydenham is the oldest senior to attend the program at the new centre. She was present at the opening and said, “Everything here is just absolutely beautiful and I just love it.” Her daughter Mary added, “She’s always asking me when we are going again next.”

The SFCSC partnered with St. Paul’s United Church to be able to rent the manse and since December of last year a number of changes were made to the building to allow the programs to begin officially in March. Changes have included the addition of a new front deck, wheelchair-accessible washrooms and a ramp that allows wheelchair access, a new driveway, and widened doorways.

Future plans include the addition of a back door, which will provide seniors with access to the back yard. There are plans to build a number of raised beds so seniors can garden comfortably.

Though most of the funding for the project came from the South East Local Health Integration Network, which funds the seniors’ programs, the SFCFC is required to fund their family services department themselves and are therefore dependent on the generosity of the community and individuals to help them provide those additional services offered at the new centre.

David Townsend, executive director of the SFCSC, said, “This is a great way to show the community the services that are available in the community but also to make them aware that we need their support to continue delivering these services. There is limited funding available and with the demand and increase in the aging population we very much require the community to help out.”

Joan Cameron, board chair of the SFCSC, spoke to me of the importance of community awareness of the available programs, which are critical, and also of the need for additional volunteers to keep these services up and running.

Brenda Crawford, council member at St. Paul’s United Church, was responsible for putting together the original proposal to bring the SFCSC to the Harrowsmith manse. “We didn’t want our manse just to be a rental property; we wanted to fulfill our mandate, which is to serve and help people in the region. She added, “If I never do anything else in my lifetime I’m happy to know that I have helped this to happen.” She is not alone.

For more information visit the SFCSC’s website at www.ruralvisionscentre.org