Bronskill Group awards

Grants awarded to two County organizations

Alternatives for Women and the Recreation Outreach Centre (ROC) recently received some muchneeded funding from the Bronskill Group, which was created in 2019 to respond to the future needs of charitable organizations within Prince Edward County. Leah Morgan, executive director at Alternatives for Women says the funding could not have come at a better time. “I’m very relieved. We have a lot of repairs that we need to do right now at one of our second-stage buildings. We own a six-unit apartment building that serves as transitional shelter for abused women, and it definitely needs some repairs, so this is very helpful at this time.” The organization has owned the building for about 20 years and relies on fundraising, grants and donations, plus a small amount of rent, to pay for upkeep of the building. “The rent is geared to income,” says Morgan. “For the most part, the women residing there have had a stay in an emergency shelter—Three Oaks in Belleville or Napanee Interval House, or Red Cedars in Shannonville—and they come to stay with us for approximately a year. During that time they work closely with a transitional worker, who assists them in finding safe, affordable housing.” It has been a challenge to find suitable housing in Picton, and some women have had to relocate outside of the County. However Alternatives for Women makes every effort to keep the women in the County. “We have been quite successful in the past few months is assisting women in finding housing here in Picton. We would never ask women to leave [second-stage apartment] without having permanent housing secured, so we do have to often extend the stay for women.”

Alternatives for Women has four transitional units at Vi’s House, plus one long-term affordable apartment, and are in the process of adding one emergency bed. “Sometimes the emergency shelters are full, and we are unable to send women there, or they need to stay in Picton if they work here or need to be close to their children’s school.” Currently, 10 women and nine children are in transitional housing, and there has been an increase in demand since the pandemic began. “Lots of women are still coming looking for housing and we are assisting them getting to shelter,” says Morgan. “However, we are seeing a decline in calls to the crisis line for counselling and support. That’s very concerning to me, and to several other violence against women agencies across the province. I think that may be in part due to the self-isolation due to COVID-19 and women are at home with their partners and children 24/7 and probably don’t have the opportunity to reach out to us as they would do normally.” According to a report from the OPP detachment in Picton, from March to the end of August there have been 76 domestic disturbance calls. Morgan is grateful for the support Alternatives for Women receives from the community. “We cannot express the level of appreciation and gratitude for contributions like this grant. I’m quite astonished by the level of support of this community and the way everyone pulls together to assist us. We really appreciate the support.”

Leah Morgan, executive director for Alternatives for Women, stands at the front door of Vi’s House in Picton.

The second organization receiving funds from the Bronskill Group is the ROC. Alison Kelly, communications officer for the ROC says the award was a great surprise. “The funds will be used to address our concerns about food insecurity among our youth. We’re going to be putting that money directly into the creation and delivery of our County Food Kits, as well as creating our grab-andgo lunch kits and the healthy snacks and meals we offer when we do our programs and workshops,” she says. “Youth still continue to report a community-wide struggle with food insecurity, in addition to a steady increase in mental health issues and concerns, for example homelessness, increased substance abuse, academic struggles. We’ve been trying to adapt and find new ways to deliver our programming in a way that is safe and also addresses some of these new issues that have been identified. The work hasn’t stopped, and with this grant we can continue to do things that are really important to these kids, that they really need and depend upon in these challenging times.” The food kits have proven to be a popular feature, with over 1,100 being distributed since the program began. Last week the Thanksgiving dinner food kit included chickens from Prinzen Farms, Peas from Mill Creek, vegetables from Laundry Farms, as well as pumpkin pie and cream, all of which was donated.

By implementing operational changes to address health and safety concerns, onsite programs at the ROC are now available. “It’s re-imagining what we’ve always done, but at a smaller scale, and a lot of intentional programming—here is what we are doing, here are the expectations from you—and we’ve had a great response so far,” says Kelly. Some workshops for youth include a paint night with artist Stew Jones, and a pottery workshop at Ye11ow Studio with Dawn Stafrace- Middleton. A Youth Inclusion Program mentored by Ben Wadsworth and Claudia Bernardino provides oneon- one mental health support and small-group programming. On Mondays and Tuesdays, youth can pick up bagged lunch at the ROC. “They come to check-in, they come to tell us how their weekend was,” says Kelly. “Something that we’ve found all through this pandemic is that it’s all about the connections and the relationship these youth continue to have with the staff. This is a very rewarding job. You meet some kids that are really fantastic. I like to say kids aren’t bad, they just have bad things happen to them. If you give them a space to open up and talk about that then we can help them navigate through whatever barriers they have, and they are able to succeed as a contributing member of the County.”

To learn about the programs offered by the ROC, please visit theroc.ca.