On Wednesday, October 6th, Transition House hosted an online panel discussion which provided a peek into Northumberland’s homelessness system, from the perspective of Transition House and their community partners. Board Chair Jeff Wheeldon walked us through the event as Master of Ceremonies and introduced us to a
panel of Transition House staff and community partners.
The presentation was timely as the County just completed the enumeration process in which the homeless population in Northumberland was counted. Anne Newman, Executive Director of Transition House opened with “setting the scene”, referring to the organization’s alignment to federal, provincial and municipals strategies such as Reaching Home, Ontario’s Affordable Housing Strategy and Northumberland County’s 10-year Housing and Homelessness Plan
Listeners heard from Sarah Tanner, Manager of Community Services at Northumberland County who passionately addressed how the County is prioritizing homelessness and ensuring alignment of community priorities, in order to “have the biggest impact for people locally.”
She challenged the community to think about how we are aligning, how this can be measured and how visions can turn into actions. “Transition House has demonstrated an ability to lead this alignment in the field through their current reach and work in wellness, outreach and emergency housing”, said Tanner and she shared her experience working
closely with the organization through pandemic services.
The leadership team including Chantelle Niles, Holly Ferguson and Alora Candler spoke about program successes and pivots over the last year as the shelter closed, moved and reopened, the creation of transitional housing and the development of the motel overflow program. This internal glimpse also provided housing statistics of 6 people permanently moved onto independent housing situations from overflow and 5 being permanently housed
through the Next Step Transitional Housing Program.
Later, we heard from partners such as Adam Hudson speaking about food security in Northumberland and pandemic related initiatives that have kept our whole community fed with access to densely nutritious food. Alex McPhee from Northumberland Hills Hospital shared her current work with Transition House as advisor to creating internal processes,
systems and positions for people with lived experience. Finally, we heard from Sargent Janice MacDonald from the Cobourg Police on collective work in community safety which has allowed for increased focus and presence with our community’s homeless populations.
The purpose of this presentation was to create friends of Transition House. “It’s about changing the dialogue, that we are seen as a solution in our community. It’s sort of reframing why we are here, and why we need to be here. It is my hope…that we are able to share more hope, positive stories, positive community impact, and wherever there are
challenges, work together in a solution focused manner to create community where all of us matter, no matter what economic position we end up in”, was Newman’s response to how the community can help.
The full panel discussion can be viewed at https://thshelter.ca/events/ and all information regarding adding your friendship to the organization can be found by emailing community@thshelter.ca or contacting the shelter directly at 905-376-9562.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
