Joint statement from Wellness Centre of Excellence Partners
Public who couldn't get into info session directed to online survey
All of the community partners would like to express our appreciation for those who joined the community session for the proposed Timmins and Area Wellness Centre of Excellence (WCE) on Monday, Sept. 9.
The Wellness Centre of Excellence (WCE) will serve as a transformative Health Hub, oering a comprehensive continuum of client-centered services. The WCE will provide critical health services and serve as a hub for education, training, and community development.
Announced in August 2024, CDSB, alongside its partners, plans to apply to become a Homelessness and Addictions Recovery Treatment Hub (HART) in Timmins. To provide the best possible chance to receive this vital funding, CDSB has purchased 1800 Riverside Drive.
The facility’s design includes counselling rooms, Indigenous healing spaces, cultural teaching areas, and communal skills development spaces for clients. By oering specialized training and outreach clinics, the WCE will support regional care providers and help build capacity throughout the district.
We acknowledge the shortcomings of the intended format and are grateful for the strong turnout and valuable conversations that took place. During the session, 25 professionals from a variety of health and social service agencies were present to gather input, provide information and answer questions from our community members.
Our intention in organizing the session with a small group format was to foster more meaningful, personalized discussions, ensuring that attendees could speak directly with experts and have their questions answered thoroughly. Regrettably, the format was not followed as planned, and this limited the opportunity for some participants to fully engage and share their perspectives.
We appreciate those who took the time to provide feedback and look forward to bringing an improved and simplified format that addresses capacity challenges and ensures individuals have the ability to have their questions answered for future sessions.
Despite these challenges, many quality conversations took place, and we gathered important feedback and heard concerns related to safety and security, concerns about potential for individuals to gather around the area and the need for clarification about how services will work.
The Timmins and District Hospital and the Cochrane District Services Board, alongside community health and social service partners are partnering to provide mental health and addiction services for Timmins and area, including programs such as withdrawal management, addiction treatment and
supportive and transitional housing.
As we are still in the early planning phase, we are exploring potential options for additional services that could be o ered, with input from the community and our partners.
Listening to and understanding the concerns of our neighbours remains central to this process.
We encourage anyone who was unable to contribute fully at the session to submit their questions and suggestions via our online survey be scanning the
QR Code below.
Further information, including feedback collected from Monday, Sept. 9, will be made publicly available for the community.
Thank you once again for your participation as we continue working to create a healthier, safer and stronger community.
Editor’s note— Different services will be the purview of different organizations within the WCE partnership, according to Jean
Carrière, project lead. Addiction treatment and withdrawal management would be offered by the Canadian Mental Health Association-Cochrane Temiskaming Branch, the Timmins and District Hospital, and the Jubilee Centre. The Cochrane District Services Board (CDSB) will not operate the centre. The governance structure is still being determined. The CDSB will be the landlords. CDSB social workers will be on staff and the CDSB will provide supportive and transitional housing services and access to Ontario Works.