Community Safety and Well-Being Huron will be hosting a 2025 campaign kickoff and 2024 year-in-review this Friday, January 10.
An event will be held at the Libro Hall in Clinton from 1-1:30 p.m. with a Q and A session right afterwards. Michaela Johnston, Secretary for the CSWB Huron Oversight Committee, says the campaign being unveiled is the mental health and addictions campaign, which will focus on three key areas.
"One is Get Connected, and the links between social connection and addiction and wellness. The second is In The Know, which is focusing on the agricultural community," Johnston detailed. "45 percent of farmers report high stress and 68 percent of farmers are more susceptible than the general population for chronic stress, which can lead to physical and mental illness. So it's just a target area that we're really focusing on this year."
The other focus will be on empathy and awareness of addiction. Johnston says that's something we all need to be willing to be when it comes to dealing with addictions issues with people we love and in general.
"Addiction can happen to anybody, and we need to treat it with empathy, and we'll talk about how we can help people with addiction have those tough discussions and where to get them assistance," she added.
In terms of the 2024 year-in-review for CSWB Huron, Johnston says they will be highlighting a number of things. She says one big thing the CSWB Huron group did was give everyone a place to go and find out information.
"So we launched a website in July of 2024, and as of October 11, we had 909 unique website visits, but it's well over 1 and-a-half thousand now, and that's at CSWBHuron.ca," Johnston pointed out.
Johnston says it shows how many people want to find out more about what they're doing and access local services. She also highlighted that CSWB Huron focused on mental health and addictions, housing and homelessness, domestic and family violence and community security initiatives last year.
CSWB Huron also supported a number of other programs including Victim Services and the OPP Lifesaver Project. Johnston also adds that CSWB Huron was contacted by 13 different municipalities for help to do similar awareness campaigns, as well as a provincial organization.
"We were also contacted by the Association of Municipalities in Ontario, or AMO, to help them put together a toolkit for other municipalities regarding intimate partner violence and gender-based violence, we're seen as a lead in that area," she noted.
You can RSVP for the event by emailing Johnston at mjohnston@goderich.ca or find out more at CSWBHuron.ca.