BY JENNIFER CHORNLEY The VOICE
Advocacy to keep the Fenwick EarlyON program location open has been brought to the attention of Niagara Regional Councillors sitting on the Public Health and Social Services Standing Committee.
On Tuesday, January 8, Jennifer Ziraldo and Paul Bryant were delegates at the committee meeting.
As they had missed the delegate application deadline, the committee voted to allow Bryant and Ziraldo to present their case.
Ziraldo’s children—three-year old son Alexander and 11-month old daughter Charlotte use the Fenwick location on a regular basis.
Ziraldo said that after the Fenwick location closes on February 1, the five-day program will be down shifted to a “meager” two hours every Friday morning from 10 AM until noon in a small room at the Fonthill library, and two hours per week on random days at the community centre.
“This is more expensive than the daily cost at the current Fenwick church,” Ziraldo said. “[FACS] plan to have the two EarlyON staff members keep the facility items in their personal cars to set up and tear down. This is time taken away from the two hours and our children’s development. The Fenwick location has one of the lowest rent costs compared to the other facilities at approximately $8,000 a year.”
Paul Bryant explained that the Fenwick lease dates back to 2004 and was for $600 a month, plus an additional $300 for air conditioning in the summer, totaling $7,500 yearly. The original lease entitled program use of 1,000 square feet of the church hall plus a large fenced area outside. Usage was for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Since the initial agreement, usage significantly increased to five days Monday to Friday and entitled usage of the entire hall covering 4,000 square feet, the outside fenced area, plus the use of 1,000 square feet in an adjacent hall on an occasional mutually convenient basis. EarlyON uses this attached hall for video presentations, lectures, information sessions, and other group-oriented programs
The present lease is $8,000 yearly.
The leased area is fully accessible for those with disabilities. In addition, Bryant said that to ensure an inclusive, neutral environment in the hall, there are no church symbols of any kind.
Bryant described how the Fenwick space is well used. With all of the toys and interactive activity centres the location has, “It’s an extensive system which cannot be provided by a mobile unit unless it’s in a massive tractor trailer.”
Ziraldo cited the four hours of programming in Pelham, compared to the 167.5 hours at the Welland location is “clear discrimination between urban and rural residents in this decision.”
Adding, “The only rationale I can make for this decision is that there is an interest to privatize this program and it is being restructured to make it more enticing for a third-party provider.”
Ziraldo added that statistics provided to support the closures are “woefully inaccurate and contradict the high volume attendance the Fenwick site enjoys. I know this because I have seen the actual statistics myself from the centre.”
FACS reported that there were only 20 families serviced at the Pelham sites, while Ziraldo asserted to the committee that in fact 200 families were serviced last quarter, with those families visiting over 1,000 times.
Niagara Falls Regional Councillor Peter Nicholson commented on the difference in numbers and inquired if people were making use of the centre.
Ziraldo said she saw the stats personally and, “I can’t make that up.” She added that the issue with the mobile sites is that they don’t work for the parents who work shifts or work part-time, plus the random days at the community centre were all that were available to accommodate the program due to prior usage bookings.
Bryant has two grandsons ages four and six, both of whom participated in the Fenwick EarlyON Child and Family Centre until they attended junior kindergarten full time. Bryant said the program taught them how to socialize and interact with other children in a safe and secure facility through “excellent leadership” from the two EarlyON staff.
“Providing a broad spectrum of interaction for all who are attending, my grandchildren learned about self confidence by singing and reading in front of others during the ‘circle time’ lead by EarlyON staff,” he said. “They experienced the enjoyment of reading books, the meaning of sharing and respect of other children’s rights through group play, empathy from experiencing theirs and others’ maturing behaviour.”
Bryant described to the committee the activities and resources the program provided children and their caregivers, who range in age from parent to grandparent.
“The drop-in aspect of EarlyON is perfect for families,” Bryant said. “Like batteries on charge, some require most of the day and some are recharged in a few hours.”
“From nursing moms to exhausted grandparents, this is an important break for parents of all ages,” he said. “It provides an opportunity for them to interact with staff and fellow caregivers, ask questions, get feedback during play and learn from approved published resources in the facility.”
Bryant also highlighted why rural communities such as Fenwick require programs such as EarlyON. As rural communities are more compact, they offer a healthier place where people can walk, thus reducing carbon footprint. Also, “[residents] get to know others in their community,” he said. “[This] helps develop a common bond that leads to a strong safe place to raise children, which cannot be overstated.”
Bryant also added the EarlyON Centre are important in the early stages of child’s development, especially in terms of mental well-being in all forms, including addictions.
“I was listening to a speaker from the Australian Institute of Family Studies on the radio recently who said, “The opposite of addiction is ‘connectedness and relationship.’”
Bryant also cited a Canadian Press article written by Sara Austin, lead director of Children First, that said, “The report found the number of mental health-related hospitalizations among people aged five to 24 had soared 66 percent over the last decade, while the number of hospitalizations jumped 55 percent over the same period.”
Bryant said that drugs, alcohol and cannabis addictions [plus] mental health issues like depression threaten their lives, especially when they are judged by their peers all day long, even into their safe space at home through their electronic devices.”
“Our strongest defense to support our children is through education, which also helps the generations either side of them,” Bryant said. “Children don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care. I cannot stress enough the importance of the EarlyON Children and Family Centres in the growth and development of our children. We should be opening more EarlyON Centres not closing them.”
After Bryant and Ziraldo made their presentations, there was discussion by committee members. Since this is the first time the committee has heard of the situation, clarification was needed on how the program is funded, costs to participants and whether or not they were being asked to provide a replacement program in the area or to speak with FACS.
During the discussion amongst the committee members, Commissioner of Community Services Adrienne Jugley said the province funds the EarlyON program, however, in 2017, the province transferred the responsibilities of service management to the Niagara Region, which became effective January 1, 2018.
To maintain the services, the Region “entered into temporary contracts with existing providers exactly where they were with the funding that was received from the province,” she said. Contracts were between 18 to 24 months, but now have to be replaced. Once the procurement process is completed, request for proposals (RFP) will be extended to current and potential service providers.
Because the EarlyON program “was not the business of the Region prior to 2018,” the Region has been meeting with stakeholders to grasp a better understanding.
The Region will be going through a procurement process and reports will be brought forward over the next few months on how to move forward in providing these services to both the rural and urban communities, said Jugley.
Jugley noted that the Region does “flow the provincial dollars” for the EarlyON program to be funded, however they “must work with the expectations set by the province.”
She also noted that it was not the Region’s decision to close down certain locations but rather the managing agency’s decision, which in this case is FACS.
Port Colborne Regional Councillor Brenda Butters asked Jugley, “What is Fenwick supposed to do going forward?”
Jugley said she understood the issue with contracts and leases, but once “Fenwick is out of the picture, chances are, they may not come back into the picture for an EarlyON Centre.”
Butters asked whether if in a few months time it can be brought back to Fenwick. “It seems to me, first of all, when [Ziraldo] talks about stats...20 families to 200, if that's if that's actually the case that's a lot of people being served,” Butters said. “For myself, I would hate to think that they're kind of pooched out of the system when their kids matter just as much as a kids matter in Welland, Port Colborne or any other place.”
Jugley responded that it was a “unique challenge” to balance services such as these in Niagara’s rural and urban areas, especially since there is only $4 million available for the entire Region to fund the program.
In addition, when the Region works with future contracts, Jugley said they would see which organizations will step up and how they propose to serve each of the communities and the funds they require to do so. The existing budget of $4 million will “include expectations of serving the smaller communities.”
St. Catharine Mayor Walter Sendzik inquired if a motion could be passed to ensure facilities like Fenwick don’t close until input is provided by communities and reports are brought forward that will better inform council.
Jugley said they “have to be cautious” as the Region does not hold the building leases nor the staff contracts and because of this FACS didn’t want to renew the lease agreements.
“To compel them to renew the leases is very difficult.”
She added that she was “concerned [the Region] would be exceeding our authority.” Also because of the transition, there is nothing stating in the agreement they cannot exit a lease with the Region’s permission.
Jugley also added the South Pelham Road location was within three and a half and six kilometres of four other sites, while the Fenwick Location is seven to 14 kilometres away from four other sites.
Earlier in her presentation, Ziraldo told the committee that Welland has four EarlyON Centres with an additional two outreach sites with the Welland Main Street site only a two-minute car ride from the Welland Wellness Centre location, both of which have the same operating hours. “This is a blatant duplication of services,” she said.
“How does this programming model make any sense and how does it benefit residents west of Welland,” Ziraldo questioned. “It doesn’t.”
Jugley said in a survey amongst residents who were and weren’t using the services, some were willing to travel 10 to 15 minutes to get a “full scope of services.”
“I actually agree with [Ziraldo] that we want to be careful, that we don't have too many services that are within five minutes or two minutes of each other. That's not a good system design,” Jugley added.
“The commute to Welland is massive barrier for those who attend the Fenwick site,” Ziraldo said. “The Fenwick site provides all the developmental benefits to support our children while being affordable and accessible.”
Sendzik said that he was “uncomfortable” about removing the service from Fenwick and considers the location proximities, including those less than five kilometres, as being “poor management.”
“There has to be some kind of check and balance,” he said. “There’s got to be a way that the committee can do something to at least provide the service for now until we have a more fulsome understanding on the impact it’s going to have on a community like Fenwick.”
Jugley said the Region will speak with FACS to see what “alternative supports” can continue to be provided for the families.
“We just don't want them creating even other kinds of things until our planning is done so we are trying to work with them,” she said.
“I will admit they're a little bit ahead of us on this than we would have liked but we will continue to work with them to try to find some safe space.”
Sendzik made a motion to send correspondence from the committee chair that would “articulate how strong we are in keeping this site open until all the evidence is on the table and any decision matrix that would be made would be fully understood by the community and by council.”
“I think that sends a strong message to FACS and we will be keeping an eye on their numbers as they come forward,” Sendzik added.
Organizers left a petition at the Fenwick Avondale which has gathered some 200 signatures, and there is an online petition at change.org.
The Fenwick EarlyON location is one of two that serviced Pelham residents. The location on South Pelham Road serviced both Welland and Pelham and closed on December 19 last year.
A rally in support of the Fenwick EarlyON centre will be held starting at 10 AM on Monday January 21, at Fenwick United Church, with the families who use the site. Organizers have invited elected officials and media to attend.
