About
The Bridge is a proposed low-barrier collaborative care hub designed to provide essential supports, social services, and primary health care to individuals experiencing homelessness in the Belleville community. This facility will be open 7 days a week, 365 days a year, ensuring that support is always available when it is needed most.
Integrated Care Hub
When some people don’t have a place to call home, it casts a shadow over our entire community. It is a dynamic social, economic and health crisis that intersects with the mental health and addictions crisis, income insecurity and a lack of affordable and supportive housing. It is a complex issue that results in strained social, health and emergency resources, public safety concerns, and a disconnectedness that affect all residents.
Small businesses face heightened challenges, including patron safety concerns, reduced customer traffic, and higher operating costs for security and restoration measures.
Health care and emergency services are overwhelmed, struggling to meet the soaring demands with their limited resources, often leading to longer response times and strained facilities.
Front line workers, from social workers to emergency responders, face burnout and emotional stress as they bear witness to the daily struggles and tragedies of homelessness.
Most crucially, people who are homeless endure unimaginable hardship, grappling with instability, insecurity, and the deprivation of basic human needs.
The causes of homelessness and the impacts of homelessness are far-reaching and multifaceted, demanding a collective, compassionate effort to address and alleviate this critical issue.
The Bridge is one large step in the right direction for our communities.
Mission
Through a one door, one roof approach, we will ensure people experiencing homelessness have access to both basic needs and the services, system navigation and advocacy required to achieve stability and foster recovery.
Vision
We believe that housing is a human right and envision a community where we all have a home that is safe, stable and affordable. Until then, we will keep hope alive at a safe and welcoming space where community is created.
Values
Integrity we will work with our community honestly and be accountable to each other and our other stakeholders for what we say and do.
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Harm Reduction and Trauma-Responsive we prioritize reducing harms and focus on building safety, choice, collaboration, trustworthiness and empowerment in our interactions with people.
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Strengths-based we identify, celebrate, and build on strengths in order to achieve the individual and shared goals that each sets for themselves.
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People-Centered our services are informed by people with lived-experience providing relevant services that meet the needs of individuals, wherever they are at in their journeys.
The Bridge hub is committed to offering the right care in the right place at the right time. By providing essential health and social services in a safe and accessible location, we aim to improve outcomes, promote stability, and foster recovery for those in need. Our dedicated consortium members, who are leading this project and will deliver services at The Bridge, pledge to work with a high degree of integrity, transparency, and shared accountability.
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At The Bridge, individuals will have access to a wide range of services including showers, washrooms, laundry facilities, nutritious food, a drop-in area, a rest area, a warming center, community development programs, primary health care, mental health services, and addiction medicine. Currently, some of these programs are available at Bridge Street United Church and the former police station on Dundas; these services will all be relocated to our new location at 1 Alhambra Square.
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Guided by principles of peer support, harm reduction, and trauma-responsiveness, The Bridge prioritizes safety and aims to minimize harm for both the community and those accessing our services. Our work is grounded in addressing the immediate needs of our clients, offering meaningful engagement with both peers and staff through trauma-informed and harm reduction approaches, and linking individuals to more intensive treatments as their needs evolve.
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Community-based integrated care hubs, like The Bridge, have been well researched and proven to be successful models for delivering services to the most systematically disadvantaged populations, including youth, seniors, and marginalized groups. Our mission is to create a supportive and caring environment that bridges the gap to recovery and stability for everyone we serve.
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Consortium Members:
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· John Howard Society of Belleville
· Belleville Quinte West Community Health Centre
· Enrichment Centre for Mental Health
· Canadian Mental Health Association HPE
· Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
· United Way Hastings & Prince Edward
· Grace Inn Shelter