Carea receives Ontario Trillium boost
By Chris Jones/The Oshawa Express
Carea Community Health Centre has been awarded $746,200 from the Ontario Trillium Foundation that will allow the organization to expand its community nourishment programs.
“As a community health centre, our job – and the reason we’re here – is to meet the needs of the community by addressing social determinants of health and using our approach to health and well-being,” says Lepine.
She also says they do wrap-around services for their clients. This means they will approach their health from a physical, emotional and mental standpoint.
Lepine thinks part of the reason Carea was awarded the grant is because it already serves the population and already has the foundation to support people.
Lepine says the money will primarily go towards their nutrition program.
“As we know there’s a huge issue with diabetes in [the Oshawa and Durham area]. We want to address those health needs so we want to hire a dietician to help with that,” says Lepine. “We also know that food brings a sense of community. So, by doing these nutrition programs we can address the Indigenous population, we can address the newcomer population, those with food security issues, and those in low income households.”
Teaching people the basics of how to cook on a budget while still cooking nutritiously for a family with limited means is something the group wishes to address as well.
Lepine also notes the nutrition programs will be mostly run out of the Oshawa and Pickering locations because these are the two that already have community kitchens.
“I think the really nice thing about this program is the approach – and probably a lot of the reason why we were awarded the grant. We’re removing all of the barriers for the client to participate,” says Lepine.
According to Lepine, built into the program are funds to support participant’s travel. That means bus tickets and other means of transportation. She says there are also funds that provide people with childcare so they can bring their children to Carea.
“The whole idea is to address social isolation that is happening within our community,” says Lepine.
Social isolation is when an individual is experiencing a state of complete or near-complete seclusion.
“There’s a couple of reasons that people could be experiencing social isolation,” says Lepine. “One could be mental health issues… it could be monetary reasons… So our purpose is to remove those barriers to help clients come out here and engage other people that are much like them.”
The grant money will be spread over a 36-month period, as per requested by the group, says Lepine.
“Something as large as this, it can’t be done in one year. So, we want to be able to start the momentum in year one and be able to build on that,” Lepine says.
“The other larger part of that is the element of sustainability,” says acting CEO Francis Garwe. “When you build a program, the first two years of initiating a program and implementing, is more about building the best lines to understand and see the impact on what it gives to the community.”