Family Services Department
Community Counselling
Community Counsellors are trained volunteers who are available for support and assistance during Food Bank open hours. There are currently 10 active volunteers, speaking 5 languages. This year, Counsellors had 2940 contacts with people seeking assistance and referrals. 825 of these were new households, who had never been to N2N before. Nearly 4,000 referrals to services were made.
Nearly 4,000 referrals to services were made.
The Counsellor Helped Me To:
"Once I’m settled, I’d like to come and volunteer here. N2N has been a gift beyond words to me so I would love to give back just a drop in the ocean that has been given to me."
Assisting newcomers, particularly from the Middle East Diaspora, with settlement needs that include translating documents, finding a family doctor, dental services, linking people to language and employment supports. In addition, the MEO worker helps with a soft referral, which means that they stay with the individual through the referral process, supporting both the person seeking service, and the organizing providing that service, to help ensure that the process is done with great care to meet particular linguistic and cultural needs
- 1233 meetings with individual households.
- 142 (13%) households had never been served by N2N before.
- 655 households (2054 persons) were enrolled in the Ontario Electricity Support Program (OESP) which provides a monthly credit to household electricity bills.
- 103 households (290 persons) received emergency financial assistance to pay their Alectra bill in 2018.
Family Services offers free financial counselling for anyone looking to improve their financial situation. Financial Counsellors can help with debt management, budgeting and financial goal-setting. This year, Money Matters counsellors had 45 new persons seeking out the program, and continued to serve many existing clients through 113 sessions. Beginning in March 2019, the Money Matters program began offering a small group Grocery Price Matching program, which teaches individuals to use store circulars and a social media app to price match for big savings. It has been very popular, and will be piloted monthly to assess for long term success.
Christmas Program
1450 Households
| Adults | 51-59 | 60-64 | 65+ | Children | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1820 | 400 | 177 | 236 | 1808 | 4441 |
2018 Toy Store Numbers
| Store | 0-2 | 3-5 | 6-8 | 9-10 | Totals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toy Store | 275 | 314 | 343 | 246 | 1178 |
| Home Delivery | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 |
| 2018 Totals | 276 | 315 | 344 | 250 | 1185 |
Thanks to our Partners!
- Neighbour to Neighbour Centre continues to host the City of Hamilton Dental Health bus, mobile dental clinic, all day every Wednesday.
- Local dentist, Dr. Laslo Szoke, continues to work with N2N, offering free dental hygiene appointments for N2N clients. Dr. Szoke retired in the fall, and we are so grateful for all of the assistance that he offered to persons requiring dental treatments. Congratulations Dr. Szoke!
- Interval House is on-site weekly to meet with women needing support.
- Employment Ontario counsellors are on-site weekly to meet with anyone looking for work. Thanks to Goodwill, Mohawk and VPI!
- Church of the Resurrection offers Women’s Space programming every Thursday morning at 435 Mohawk Road West.
New Partnerships in 2019
- Help My Hearing no cost onsite hearing tests and assistance to get free hearing devices.
- Hamilton Community Legal Clinic , legal outreach services covering needs that include: tenant rights, immigration and refugee issues, OW/ODSP appeals
- Xperience Annex assisting vulnerable youth aged 18-29 with complex barriers, find a path towards education and/or employment.