Resource centres take it to the community

Spearheaded by the Ontario Community Support Association, the month is meant to highlight the needs of those requiring support to live independently due to disability, illness or age, explains Nathalie Lafreniere, program co-ordinator for the Eastern Ottawa Resource Centre (EORC).

At the EORC, a week-long, daily open house will welcome east-end residents and seniors to their Tenth Line Road office starting Monday, Oct. 19, she continues.

“It’s an opportunity for us to open our doors so seniors in our community can meet with (us) and just be aware of our services,” Lafreniere suggests. “It’s really difficult to reach out and let people know about us (as a non-profit). We want to do a little bit of prevention.”

The EORC’s first-ever open house – which will run for an hour each afternoon – aims to give area seniors a chance to sit down with resource centre staff and discuss how EORC programs could fit their individual needs, Lafreniere recounts.

“It’s really just a meet-and-greet,” she says, pointing to available resources including Meals on Wheels, medical transportation and home maintenance. “Too many seniors are actually living at home and trying to make everything happen, or realizing they’re not in a position to do everything in their homes and think the only option is to move.”

Currently the EORC offers 11 programs geared towards seniors, Lafreniere continues, serving 1,300 residents during the last fiscal year.

Having those services available “promotes individuality and independence,” she adds. “It gives them a sense of belonging. Sometimes they’ve been in their home a number of years; it’s who they are.”

Meanwhile at the Orléans-Cumberland Community Resource Centre (OCCRC), that area facility will mark the month with its annual Comedy for the Community event this weekend, recounts fundraising co-ordinator Cindy MacKay. Hosted at Gisele-Lalonde high school on Saturday, Oct. 17, the event will feature Yuk Yuk’s comics and a silent auction, she explains, with advance tickets for the 19+ show currently on sale.

The event will also include a bar and buffet, MacKay continues, along with 20 different “really amazing” auction prizes, from a set of pearls to Sens tickets. Three comics – along with a bilingual MC – will grace the stage, she says, and provide the evening’s laughs.

“All the money goes towards the centre,” MacKay recounts of the motivators behind holding Comedy for the Community. “We’d love to have 200 (people attend).”

The event has been happening “for a number of years,” she describes, initially as only the auction and then moving to include Yuk Yuk’s. Last year, MacKay continues, the OCCRC was able to gather around $6,000 from the event, projecting this year’s gains at anywhere between $4,000 and $8,000, depending on attendance.

“This type of event is overly successful,” she suggests, crediting the combination of comedy and the auction appealing to wide range of people and ages. “It’s a great way to team up with a very well-known group like Yuk Yuk’s and get people to come out. A lot of people don’t realize these types of services are in their community. It lets them know who we are and where we are.”

Comedy for the Community will begin at 7 p.m. For tickets or more information, please visit www.crcoc.ca or call 613-830-4357. For more information on the EORC’s open house, please visit www.eorc-gloucester.ca or call 613-741-6025.