The City of Kawartha Lakes Community Pandemic Recovery Task Force is working with around 150 organizations and agencies and will likely work with even more as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
The task force was established to provide advice on resources and support to help facilitate the community and social recovery from the pandemic.
The support will include non-profit and community services in the health and human service sector as well as recommendations for partnerships and working groups and the exploration of funding opportunities to support those services.
READ MORE: Coronavirus: Several businesses in the City of Kawartha Lakes adapt to survive
Eight task force members are on the gaps assessment working group and four are working together on finding funding opportunities.
There will likely be more people added to the groups from within the community.
“What information do we need to gather and how many layers do we need to gather from the group? Do we have health and social services and sports recreation and other supports for seniors and youth?” task force co-chair Heather Kirby asked, explaining the group’s mandate at the electronic meeting.
“As much as it’s great to find out the need, we also need to look at opportunities the group can reach out to.”
“The largest task is the gaps assessment,” said task force co-chair Amy Terrill. “The funding will follow through the gaps assessment.”
The task force will also contact representatives from local faith-based groups, Canadian Mental Health Association, Trillium Lakelands District School Board, Peterborough Victoria Northumberland Clarington Catholic School Board and sports and recreation.
“The agencies are the ones on the ground that can identify where the gaps are. If we posed the question correctly, we can identify the gaps in the services for the community,” added Kirby.
“Let’s find out if the faith-based groups have any needs right now. Let’s use the survey response tool to find out if they do require anything,” she said.
READ MORE: City of Kawartha Lakes needs to find homes for more than 40 households
One of the concerns that came up at the meeting was regarding the challenges for Lindsay’s emergency shelter A Place Called Home.
“I wondered if that’s something this committee needs to look into or reach out to the folks over there to see what kind of help they might need,” said Coun. Doug Elmslie. “It’s important for everyone in the City of Kawartha Lakes.”
The City of Kawartha Lakes received an allocation from the province through the social services relief fund.
“Last week, the ministry announced they will provide additional funding under that with a primary focus on the homelessness system and housing security,” said Rod Sutherland, the municipal director of human services.
“We don’t have details yet in terms of the allocation for Kawartha Lakes. There will be opportunities to work with emergency shelter providers and emergency housing providers on a short-term basis as a result of the pandemic.”
The municipality is also asking residents, businesses and groups to join the Jump In Kawartha Lakes website to engage and provide feedback on municipal issues and projects including recovery.
The other task force in the City of Kawartha Lakes which is looking at economic recovery has created a page on the site to engage with the public.
The Community Pandemic Recovery Task Force will have its page go live on the site in the near future once it’s populated.
The task force is extending an invite to Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP Laurie Scott’s office and MP Jamie Schmale’s office to have representatives on the funding opportunities working group to create a conduit for funding from the provincial and federal governments.
The working groups will begin meeting next week, while the task force as a whole will meet again electronically on July 20.
- Canadian man dies during Texas Ironman event. His widow wants answers as to why
- ‘Sciatica was gone’: hospital performs robot-assisted spinal surgery in Canadian first
- Canadians more likely to eat food past best-before date. What are the risks?
- Treatment from female doctors leads to lower death rates, study finds
Comments