WELLINGTON COUNTY – Youth wellness hubs in Wellington County and Guelph have become busy and increasingly vital places.
There were over 22,000 visits to the six hubs located in the county and the City of Guelph in 2022.
Municipal councils in Minto and Mapleton each received an annual update on The Grove Youth Wellness Hubs at their March 21 meetings.
The Grove Wellington Guelph operates three hubs in the county, in Palmerston, Erin and Fergus, and three in the City of Guelph, at the University of Guelph campus, YMCA and the Shelldale Family Gateway Centre.
“All of these hubs are connected. A youth can walk into the Palmerston site, or the YMCA site, and our teams work together to service that youth,” explained Cyndy Dearden, executive director of The Grove Wellington Guelph, at the Mapleton meeting.
“We’re all on one database, lots of our community agencies are on that database, so that a youth doesn’t have to tell their story over and over and over again.
“In the calendar year of 2022, we saw over 22,000 youth visits to mainly the three sites in Wellington County because the University of Guelph got off to a slow start and we didn’t actually start seeing numbers of youth come through that door until September.”
The Palmerston site in particular, has been a high-traffic area, said Dearden.
“In Palmerston … we’re close to 12,000 youth visits in that site. It is a very busy site. I think it’s because it’s in such close proximity to the school,” she noted.
“So we’ve got very strong ties to Norwell District Secondary School and are working in collaboration with the principal, vice principal and teachers and their guidance department to make sure that we’re providing wraparound services.”
The hub’s role as a drop-in centre is among the most popular of the services provided to youth between the ages of 12 and 26.
“This space is a one-stop shop for our youth to really access those services they need, including the drop-in component that’s as simple as coming in and grabbing a snack or charging your phone and not talking to any of us in there,”stated Jessica Martin, site lead at The Grove Palmerston location, at the meeting in Minto.
“It’s a ‘Hey, how are you?’ and they go and sit in their space.”
She added, “There’s also mental health support.
“We have housing support with our partners, we have education support, employment, substance use support, primary care training, an array of other community services … and then, on top of all that, is our programming, which is our skills and wellbeing stream as well, which is a really big draw for our young people.”
“Our focus at The Grove is on intervention and prevention,” The Grove Palmerston chief development officer Jeff Hoffman told Minto council.
“Intervention and prevention is where we come into the model around youth care. We are an official Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario site. This is an initiative that’s supported by the province of Ontario to make it easier for youth and families to access services and access care.”
Hoffman added, “It works like this. Youth can come to the hub for any reason. They come just to hang out and most youth do just come for a safe place to spend some time … They might come to take part in the recreation activities that are at the hub, to be able to play some pool, play some foosball, play some video games.
“Or perhaps they’re there for some of the programs are being offered at the hub. If it’s an art class or lessons, music programming taking place at the hub, or they get some help with school – tutors on site – or help to find a job, help with housing, help with financial assistance.”
Hoffman said while they’re there, “youth have access to our amazing clinical team that works right here locally in Minto: mental health supports, supports around substance abuse, eating disorders – all these with no wait lists. You walk into the hub today and see somebody today.”
Martin noted the hub recently made a key addition to the youth wellness team at the Palmerston Hub.
“I’m super excited to share that we have hired a nurse practitioner as a part of our team to really be able to offer that primary care piece. She has joined the team, she will be in the hub in Palmerston physically once a month with virtual options throughout the week as well,” she stated.
The Grove Hub Palmerston hosts a wide range of activities for local youth. Advertiser file photo
Dearden offered a real-life example of how the hubs’ connections with various agencies and partners facilitate intervention in a crisis situation.
“Last August, we had a youth on a Thursday afternoon walk in to one of our sites in Wellington County. That youth was doing fine and played a game of pool with one of our youth outreach workers,” she explained.
“On Friday night, that youth went into crisis and because that youth understood that there were resources available they picked up the phone and they called Here 24/7.
“Because it was a crisis – so that means that youth was wanting to take their own life – the operator went into the youth’s file, read what was going on and instantly knew, because of their relationship with The Grove, that the youth had been to the Grove the day before, and seen our youth outreach worker … They brought that information into the conversation,” she explained.
“The youth didn’t have to explain why they were in crisis because the history was there. The operator was able to stabilize the youth over the weekend.
“On Monday morning, when the youth outreach worker walked in the door and turned on her computer there was a red flag on her computer saying this youth had … a really tough weekend.”
The worker reached out to the youth, inviting them to come in and talk.
“That youth has been seeing someone at the Grove ever since,” said Dearden.
“So that is what this is about. That is why sharing databases and all of us working collectively, it’s working.”
Tutoring services
Tutoring services have become a big part of The Grove’s offerings, said Hoffman.
“Lots of young people are struggling with school right now. They’re behind. The pandemic has really has left a number of young people struggling academically,” Hoffman explained.
“The province recognized this, the school board recognized this and they had some funding which they are able to allocate to The Grove as part of our tutoring programs. Because of that we were able to access it and provide youth with tutoring options across all of our sites, including here in Palmerston.
“Between September and February almost 360 youth took part in ttutoring sessions across the Grove sites.”
Fundraising successful
While some funding flows to The Grove through various levels of government, Dearden pointed out that community fundraising efforts are extremely important.
“Our community took the lead very early on. We embarked on a $15-million campaign,” she stated.
“I’m really pleased to tell you we’ve raised $11.9 million to date. We expect that we’ll be able to finish the campaign by the end of June. And we became an official Youth Wellness hubs Ontario site in June of 2021, so we do get some funding for our clinical team.”
Minto deputy mayor Jean Anderson asked how The Grove gets around privacy legislation to be able to share databases between agencies, noting that is something local medical personnel have been striving for.
“We are considered the circle of care with CMHA (Canadian Mental Health Association) Waterloo, Wellington,” said Martin.
“There are so many benefits and resources through CMHA. With that, there are community partners that we have to get consent for, and that is done with the youth.
‘So although Wyndham House, for an example, is one of our partners, we still need to get consent. It is not implied consent … we have to get consent from them to share that information. And the youth are always in the driver’s seat of what and who we share with.”
‘Proud of the hub’
Mapleton Mayor Gregg Davidson thanked Dearden for the information on the hubs.
“We’re certainly happy to have the Palmerston one, where a lot of our youth go to school right next door,” he stated.
Mayor Dave Turton said, “We’re so proud of the hub. We’re glad to have it in our community.
“So all I can say is thank you very much.”
