NEWS RELEASE
EMPOWER SIMCOE
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Due to a provincial funding shortfall from the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, Empower Simcoe will be closing two of its group homes in Barrie and in Orillia, along with a program that transitions people with developmental disabilities to adult supported living.
“Our primary concern right now is to ensure a smooth transition for the people we support and our employees during this period,” said Empower Simcoe CEO Dr. Claudine Cousins. “What we have is an erosion of our funding and services. Every penny we get is being eroded every day, because it can’t buy us as much as we were able to buy just even yesterday.”
Empower Simcoe currently operates 44 group living locations. Closures affect eight people receiving services who will be moved into other Empower Simcoe group living homes. No employee 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 provide agencies in the developmental services sector with a five per cent bump. Over the last 30 years, those agencies have received, cumulatively, an increase of less than four per cent.
“We’re going to continue to look at how we can work together with our families, the people we support, and our allies in the community to elevate our voice so we can let our MPPs understand this is long term,” said Dr. Cousins. “If nothing changes, we’re going to see a lot more program closures within our development services agencies.”
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