'The community has found a home:' Their lessons live on even as Ottawa's pandemic rest center closes

Thom Browne Arena COVID-era facility closed, but lessons learned could improve social service delivery in Ottawa

As recreation returns to Hintonburg's Tom His Brown Arena, That visible marker is gone from his nearly two-year tenure as a respite center.

An ice skating rink covers a concrete he slab with a table for coffee and a cot for naps. Instead of clothing and food donations, arena dropoffs will be hockey kids.

But there are intangible assets that remain after the closure that people hope will last.

It was a welcoming place where visitors could be anything — safety, comfort, a place to find company,or something to do during the day. A place to stop by. eat. Connections were formed between frontline community workers and Ottawa City officials and those who use the centre. Once enough trust was built for visitors to confide in their problems, collaborative and practical solutions were presented.

The Respite Project at Tom Brown had its long-awaited final day last Friday. The challenge now is to advance lessons learned that have the potential to significantly improve the delivery of social services in Ottawa.

"So many people ate it like his one slip," said Meredith Carr of the Parkdale Food Centre. , development and communications director said. “Someone in Sgot sick, fell and hit his head…just one break and the trajectory is completely changed.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit , people on the frontier faced new levels of isolation and struggled to meet their basic needs. Somerset West Her Community Health Center's Dawn Lyons said in spring 2020, seeing the tremendous pain the pandemic-induced closures had caused her clients, her Community Health Center (CHC) and Centertown Her Community Health Center said it was working with the city to reopen. McNabb Her Community Center, a municipal facility on Percy Street, provides washrooms, showers and other necessities for people in precarious housing and homeless people. 

Health Centers serve the communities that McNabb is to serve, along with City staff, primarily in the recreation sector. "He didn't necessarily have the experience, but he certainly had the drive and the interest and the desire to help in this moment of crisis." Family and community health and harm reduction. 

City officials and communities Staff at the agency were able to learn from each other, said .Brook Lynn Davies, a community support worker redeployed from Centertown CHC, was named the respite center's triad-turned-team leader. After more than 3,000 showers,7,600 meal requests and 130 crisis interventions, McNabb had to close in the fall of 2020 due to heating problems. The need for rest was snowballing. 

State pandemic funding led to the opening of the Thom Browne Site that November. When allowed, states, along with downtown St. Paul and Bernard Grandmaître of Vanier, were hit by a second wave of COVID-19, and people were growing increasingly frustrated, Davies said. One of the lessons exchanged among respite center personnel was that while having healthy boundaries, one should "make space" for those who entered with anger and struggle. ' was what it was like. 

"I think it's good that the community has found a home," said Davis. And city employees who were sent to rest "now carried around that different standard of care" when they returned to their former positions and new jobs.

The struggles that brought the client to the door of rest were not always apparent, and the client's needs were multifaceted. When staff looked at the door, they saw elderly and young mothers coming in looking for food, homeless people ready for sleep who didn't want to rely on shelter, CERB benefits, employment insurance, Some people may face problems with ODSP.

They took the approach of building trust with their clients over time, understanding what they needed and finding ways to address it. It can even be an on-site service.  — For example, through an assessment by an outreach nurse, or through a connection with someone else who can help.

A particularly well-received initiative was Her Team Mobile, launched by the city's Employment and Social Services chapter in early 2021. This team entered the Respite Center to support clients who are in or may be eligible for a financial assistance program. Employment and Social Services Her manager said her members of the team also helped people take advantage of other city services such as housing. 's Stephanie Bordage said. The team is now expanding beyond municipal sites to shelter systems, food banks, community health and resource centers. 

"It reduced the need for multiple calls. You had contact information right away. We were also in places where we felt safe,” says Bordage.

She has also created a place less focused solely on efficient service delivery as part of the safety measures within Tom Brown.

``You're always thinking: What do we need? Showers, food. And then there's this whole social aspect.says Caroline Yabsley, Community Shelter Operations Program Manager for the City of Ottawa.

"The focus wasn't on logistics, 'How can I help you?' It was 'Here's a great space.' It's just … building those relationships.”

As strong as its results have been, the Respite Project itself has been a catalyst for the unfolding crisis. It existed precariously as an impromptu response in a repurposed space. Its ephemeral nature was a concern to someand a relief to others. At Thom Browne, for example, Hintonberg said he was a member of the community unable to go to the playing field, Kitschippi Wardcoun said. Jeff Leiper.

Residents' understanding of the Respite Project was also tested by its duration of use as a night shelter,but Leiper realized that Tom Brown had not rested. I returned to using chisels, but my enthusiasm for resuming recreation was still there. Now that the center is completely closed, there are still visible homeless people on his wards, and councilors are encouraging respite communities to continue to benefit from his style of service in an alternative way. I observed a discussion about how to serve people.

“I don't think so, so I don't want to say it's a consensus. ' said Leiper.

One respite center closed this spring, his two remaining respite centers have expiration dates, and work is underway to return services to the community his provider. was.City officials told commissions and councils about their future plans. The first will open as a respite for Thom Browne, who depleted the existing Employment and Social Services office on Katherine Street in Centertown and has been permanently closed, to provide "fast, cost-effective and sustainable service to the community. "provide".

Boldage said the city wanted to provide something useful, but community services that he didn't duplicate what providers were already doing and said they were doing "incredibly well." There is.The hub is also in line with the new model mandated by the state for the integrated provision of municipal social services.

The Catherine Street hub, which opened Tuesday, is not exactly Respite. No shower, no crib. City and community staff working side by side in her one space, with people walking through the door with different needs (food, housing, social assistance) navigating the system or finding what they need. A model of service delivery that makes it possible to obtain or make available. there. 

Staffing hubs thanks to state pandemic funding through March At the Regional Medical Center, there is optimism about theproject, and city officials hold some of the key lessons of rest. Part of what CHC has proposed is that the hub he space continues to welcome, as well as rest Ottawa's most marginalized residents and city officials in a truly meaningful way. I feel like," Lyons said. For example, food was not initially planned to be part of the services provided, and its importance was emphasized at every meeting, she said. The city has found ways to add snack and takeout options to the hub's repertoire. 

At the same time, there is a common opinion among CHC and other community service providers that hubs should not be out of reach. Eliminates the need for respite-type services.

"When these respite centers showed up, we wondered: How do we get rid of them once we start serving them?" Mr Kerr, Parkdale Food Center said: Katherine Street Even when her hub opened, she shared concerns about "chronically underfunded social services agencies" struggling to fill the void.

And because they feel they are short on funds as they are feeling, The Well, St. Rachel Robinson, Luke's Table, and her director of Episcopal Day Program Executive at Center 454, says what the day program offers is ultimately a stopgap solution. "It is necessary, but it does not change the underlying problem of poverty."

At current ratessomeone survives Ontario Works and ODSP How, really… we can't afford housing. I can't eat it," said Robinson. And for those who are chronically homeless or on the streets in their struggle with addiction, very low-barrier housing and support to stay home are what they really need. she thinks.

By closing time on her second day of operations at the Catherine Street Hub, more than 70 of her people, including respite center customers, were being served on the premises. Many of the staff on her team had been working on a break and were aware of some of the people they had interacted with in the past, Bordage said.

After receiving client feedback, she noted that the space will become more vibrant over time. On Wednesday, Industrial was already alive with her chic aesthetic thanks to the generous arrangement of tables and chairs, cubicles and computers in her station,porthole-style windows and concrete and carpeted floors. Bordage said earlier in the day, the team was discussing preparing clothing donations when the temperature dropped.

Respite After announcing her transition plan, staff heard repeatedly that the center's "magic" often lay in the approach to clients they found within. That was it. And that's whatBoardage saidheld when the hub was built.

"There were no expectations. There were no policies to jump over. It was a welcoming approach and one that built trust." }