Empower Simcoe is closing group homes in Orillia, Barrie

PRESS RELEASE
POWER SIMCOE
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Due to a shortfall in provincial funding from the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, Empower Simcoe will close two of its group homes in Barrie and Orillia, along with a program that transitions people with developmental disabilities into adult-supported living .

“Our primary concern at this time is to ensure a smooth transition for the people we support and our employees during this time,” Empower Simcoe CEO Dr. Claudine Cousins ​​said. “What we have is an erosion of our funding and services. Every penny we get is eroded every day because it can’t buy us as much as we could buy just yesterday.”

Empower Simcoe currently operates 44 group living locations. The closures affect eight people receiving services who will be moved to other Empower Simcoe group homes. No job losses are affected by these closures.

In late 2023, Empower Simcoe, along with other provincial agencies, launched a #5toSurvive campaign calling on the province to give agencies in the development services sector a five per cent increase. Over the past 30 years, those agencies have received a cumulative increase of less than four percent.

“We will continue to look at how we can work together with our families, the people we support and our allies in the community to raise our voices so that we can let our MPs understand that this is for the long term.” , said Dr. Veri. “If nothing changes, we’re going to see a lot more program closures across our developmental service agencies.”

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