As a result of promised new provincial funding, the day program at Community Living Guelph Wellington is slated to make at least a temporary return.
Executive director Cindy Kinnon said she learned of the funding bump last week and agency staff is working to resurrect the program, which sees adults living with developmental disabilities supported as they participate in the community.
“We recognize that this has been hard on everyone – it’s been hard on families, it’s been hard on people we support as well as our staff,” said Kinnon. “Our goal is to … continue to provide services that people we support depend on.”
The day program, along with employment support efforts, were paused in December, impacting hundreds of people throughout Guelph and Wellington county.
Kinnon hopes to see both back up and running by the end of January.
“Staff are working really hard behind the scenes to get day services back up,” said Kinnon.
“All of the people who were coming to day services previously, our staff will be reaching out to them over the next couple of weeks to start planning for them and determining when they can come back, what their wishes are, etc.”
Kinnon said she’s not sure exactly how much new money the province will provide at this point, but notes she’s been assured dollars will flow in order to allow the programs to be restarted.
However, what happens to the programs once the fiscal year expires at the end of March remains up in the air.
“Our goal is to create the consistency that people expect as they rely on our service,” said Kinnon. “We will continue to advocate to have an improved financial position in the coming year.
“Our board is very committed to that.”
When the program pauses were announced back in October, CLGW was facing a projected $3 million deficit by the end of the fiscal year.
“We have made some improvements in our deficit position,” the executive director noted. “And we will be reporting to the ministry on a regular basis until the end of the (fiscal) year.”
