Building a community with wellness and hot dogs (18 photos)

From 2-8 p.m. today, like every Thursday, the Gore Street Neighbourhood Resource Centre (NRC) is hosting a “Community Day” full of activities in an area of Sault Ste. Marie that is described by NRC staff as having significant poverty, addiction, mental health, and crime issues.

Community Days have crafts, art classes, a clothing service, “conversation,” and a variety of other goings-on designed to create participation amongst neighbourhood residents. 

A big draw is the hot dogs.

Community Days have been happening for about 6 months in the NRC’s Wellness Centre and were designed to coincide with the NRC’s free, no health card-necessary, walk-in medical clinics on Thursdays from 3-7 p.m.  

Constable Darin Rossetto, who polices out of the NRC and is heavily involved in its operations, said the Wellness Centre is related to a larger more integrated approach to crime prevention which looks at “precursors to crime” such as “poverty, substandard housing, addiction, and negligent parenting” as well as how these factors interact with each other to lead to social problems.

Instead of only using “door kicks” and arrests to try and fix problems Rossetto said the NRC is trying to build relationships and heal the underlying causes of the problems.

The Wellness Centre is an arm of this effort.

On Community Days, children participate in an art competition, people make jewelry that will be sold at Mill Market to raise funds for more activities, and everyone jokes, talks about their problems, drinks coffee, and makes connections with their neighbours.

Professional illustrator Darren Emond offers free drawing classes from 4-5 p.m.

The Wellness Centre is also used for various community functions including Women in Crisis and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. 

Community Days were started so that community members could be “engaged” while waiting to see a doctor.

“If someone is coming here and hasn't seen a doctor they (might also) have issues with poverty, addictions, mental health, maybe dietary and parenting issues,” said Rossetto, who said the Community Days are just one way to draw these issues out so they can be addressed by one of the NRC’s multiple agencies.

More than 23 agencies contribute to the NRC including Children’s Aid Society, Algoma Public Health, Algoma Family Services, and just about any other social-services agency one can think of. 

“It’s like one-stop shopping. With all the agencies in one place you don’t have to go to 12 different offices. You come here and literally once I know what your issues are I can direct you to the right agencies,” said volunteer Robert Lefave, who coordinates on Community Days.

Rossetto said the NRC searches for “community members who can take over the leadership role.”

Community Days are mostly run by neighbourhood individuals which Rossetto calls “assets” - people who have in the past faced relevant challenges and might have insight into community problems.

“An asset could be a prostitute, an ex-drug dealer, someone who lost their son to addictions, has struggled through the challenges of mental health and has that under control,” said Rossetto.

“We have respect, inclusion, (and) trust . . . the past doesn’t mean anything. A lot of police officers have issues with that. I could be working with an individual (at the Wellness Centre) who is an asset and helping me coordinate (who) has a (large criminal) record but he hasn’t committed a criminal offence in the last 10 years. Yeah, he did everything you could possibly imagine (but) we’re moving forward,” said Rossetto.

The Wellness Centre and the NRC continue to expand. 

The Wellness Centre recently received a $2,500 donation from the United Steelworkers to build a community garden.

“We’re expecting to grow 4,000 pounds of potatoes on union property next summer,” said Lefave.

The NRC also offers dental screenings on Wednesdays and plans to soon offer a foot clinic.  

(PHOTO: On Thursdays, the Neighbourhood Resource Centre on Gore Street “engages” locals with Community Days. Jeff Klassen for SooToday)