A new centre bringing a wealth of service providers together under one roof has officially opened in Listowel.
A grand opening was held on the morning of March 4 for the new North Perth Access Centre in Listowel. The centre, located at 198 Main Street West, is a collaborative space shared by the United Way and numerous other entities, including Huron Perth Children's Aid Society.
Perth Huron United Way Executive Director Ryan Erb says this access centre will address an ongoing issue for people who need help.
"One of the biggest problems that we find is that they can't get the services that they need. So our proposition here is to bring the services to the people. So that's the idea behind these access centres, and this is actually the third one we've opened across the region," Erb explained.
The other two access centres are located in Exeter and Vanastra.
On top of United Way, United Housing, and Huron Perth Children's Aid Society, the new access centre in Listowel is also home to Optimism Place, Canadian Mental Health Association Huron Perth, the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance, and The Well Community Collective.
Erb says the need to bring all these services together in one hub location is great, because people that need help with something like mental health often need other services, too.
"Often they're challenged with more than one thing, right? We tend to compartmentalize our services, and then people end up having to navigate and end up over here, and go through five different doors. So access centres allow people to come and get help from many different service providers out of one location," he said. "The big part is, we're going to be sitting here, watching those doors open and people who live in Listowel and the immediate area are going to come in here and say 'Thank goodness I can get help.'"
With many different service avenues available to be accessed in the new centre, Erb says this will hopefully help get some of the most vulnerable in our communities to get help. The United Housing Music Loft Apartments project is right above the access centre, with affordable housing units being constructed to help address housing needs in the area. Erb points out that unfortunately, in the world we're living in, things like the access centre and United Housing projects will continue to be needed.
"Sadly, as wealth transfers to fewer and fewer people, we have more poverty, and it results in all of the social issues we're facing. So income is our number one challenge and housing falls on its heels right behind that. If we could fix income and housing, maybe we wouldn't need all these things, but right now we do, and we're here to help," he concluded.
The North Perth Access Centre will have what Erb describes as "variable" hours where the doors are open to anyone. He says much of the assistance provided there through the service providers will be by appointment, but more information will be available shortly on the Perth Huron United Way website on hours of operation and the ways to access the numerous services available.
