The Child and Youth Advocacy Centre of Simcoe Muskoka (CYACSM) has formed a new partnership with New Path Youth and Family Services to provide remote and mobile access to its child and youth services.
The partnership, which comes on the strength of last year’s Ontario Trillium Foundation $133,900 Resilient Communities Fund grant, was announced at the Orillia facility Friday morning, with dozens of community members and local dignitaries in attendance.
“Our services are for families, whose children or youth have witnessed or experienced physical sexual abuse, online exploitation, neglect, intimate partner violence or human trafficking,” said Dawn MacDonald, CYACSM executive director.
“We work alongside police and child protection services as multidisciplinary teams to provide support, care and system navigation when a record or disclosure of abuse has been made.”
With its new partnership, clients from across the region will be able to access services without needing to travel to the CYACSM building on West Street North.
“Our mission is for leadership and partnerships to make sure that children and youth have integrated accessible and inclusive mental health services where and when they need it,” said Jim Harris, CEO of New Path.
“The pandemic wasn't kind to our children; we all know that. Complexity (of cases) has increased, but (it) also gave us some new tools to better connect to our communities.”
Harris outlined multiple services New Path offers to help connect families to help — no matter where they are.
“We have a quick access clinic … (where) you can book an appointment, with certainty, through a program called Skip the Waiting Room to be able to see a counsellor in a community within days,” he said. “We also are working with a new program called One Stop Talk, which is a virtual walk-in clinic that's province-wide, leveraging medical professionals across the province.”
Thanks to the Trillium funding, CYACSM has been able to start offering mobile program delivery with New Path, with a new vehicle that can travel to four locations throughout the region to meet families where they are and reduce barriers to access for services.
Simcoe North MPP Jill Dunlop, who previously worked at the centre, commended staff for their service and use of the provincial grant.
“(This grant) has allowed them to continue delivering critical services, while providing a place of belonging and compassion for children who have experienced unfathomable situations,” Dunlop said.
“I commend Dawn, staff and volunteers, the police services and the other multidisciplinary professionals who have joined together under one roof to provide services and support to children and youth and their families who have experienced abuse.”
This year, CYACSM also received a $199,000 Ontario Trillium Fund Grant to develop a bridge support program, to provide "trauma-informed, bridge support services" while families wait to access other services available to them.
