Yes In My Back Yard:
A conversation about our community's response to homelessness
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On October 15, 2018, a group of close to 60 residents of Barrie gathered at the Southshore Community Centre to discuss how we could better respond to homelessness in our city, together.
The gathering was initiated by Redwood Park Communities, a Barrie-based charity committed to creating safe, affordable, hopeful housing in supportive community to meet the need in Simcoe County. The group included those with lived or living experience of being homeless or precariously housed; people representing a broad spectrum of sectors, including social services, housing, and homelessness (including youth and Indigenous services), health, justice and law enforcement, business, landlords and property managers, realtors and developers, city council members and candidates, and county staff. Facilitated by Sylvia Cheuy from the Tamarack Institute, the group discussed community, the concept of home, and what we hoped to achieve by meeting that day. Together, participants identified priorities that needed to be better addressed. We learned about Collective Impact (CI), and had conversations about what that could look like in our city: what assets we have currently in place that we can build on, what challenges still remain, and what was possible through Collaborative Impact, if as a city we said “Yes In My Back Yard.” Finally, working groups were challenged to make 3 recommendations: actions for 6 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year from now. At the end of the day, participants were asked to identify themselves to the organizers as either core, involved, supportive, or interested stakeholders in this work moving forward. Redwood committed to sharing the participant contact list among the participants, starting a mailing list, sharing the summary report before the end of the month, and supporting those interested in pursuing next steps. |
Click below to see the summary report.
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