Southern Frontenac Community Names Interim Director

Jeff Green | Jan 14, 2010

It all happened pretty quickly.

Deborah Andrews had been the executive director of Southern Frontenac Community Services for only six months, when just before Christmas, she was offered a job at the Community Health Centre of Ottawa South.

With a family that remains entrenched in Ottawa even though she took a job in Sydenham, it made sense for her to take it.

This left a gap at Southern Frontenac Community Services, especially in light of some of the projects that had been initiated during Andrew's short tenure at the agency.

David Townsend, who has held senior positions for six years at heath-related not-for-profit corporations in Kingston, the Diabetes Foundation and the Alzheimers Society, happened to be available and he was approached by the SFCS Board to take on the job on an interim basis.

Speaking over the phone from his office in Sydenham only a week after starting work at SFCS, Townsend said he is focussing on one initiative in particular, which is facing a deadline very soon. “An application is due soon for the seniors’ centre at the manse of the United Church in Harrowsmith to house our Adult Day Program, and disabled access is an issue that is going to take a fair bit of work,” he said.

Through his previous job, Townsend became familiar with the workings of the South East Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), the major funder for the seniors’ centre and most of the seniors’ programs that South Frontenac Community Services offers, which he said is an advantage as he jumps into work at the busy agency.

“There are also a number of other projects on the go,” he said. One of those projects, a transportation collaborative with Northern Frontenac Community Services, has already been submitted to Frontenac County for funding.

Townsend has signed on for a six-month contract at SFCS, giving the board of the agency two or three months to decide how it wants to deal with its senior staffing requirements before starting a hiring program. Even though it is early days, David Townsend said he is enjoying work in Sydenham, which is a short commute from his home in Kingston. “This is an absolutely great spot to be. The staff is so committed to what they are doing and there are no internal issues to worry about as I work on my own learning curve, and we have a very good board of directors.”

As for his own future with the agency, Townsend said it is too early to tell if he will seek to make his interim posting permanent in six months’ time, but he did not rule it out.