Sudbury East
Sudbury East covers a large geographical area. At 3225 km² it forms an irregular crescent around
the City of Greater Sudbury and includes diverse and distinct communities. Killarney on the far
west corner of the district is a relatively isolated community with a small population (505 people
2011 Census). The communities of Markstay-Warren, Hagar, St. Charles, Noelville, Monetville,
French River and Alban run from Highway 17 in the north east around to Highway 400 in the
south west along the connecting Highways 535 and 64. The area has a total population of 6526
persons of which 690 are children between the ages of 0 and 12. 2155 families reside in Sudbury
East. There is a relatively high proportion of first language French speakers in Sudbury East
(40.4% as compared to 25% for the whole Sudbury Manitoulin/ Greater Sudbury catchment area)
with most French language speakers outside of the community of Killarney.
The round table discussion in Sudbury East included members of the Sudbury East Service
Providers Network and revealed a very different makeup from the LSPN’s in the other areas. In
Sudbury East the network has extended itself to include several service providers who deliver
services to families and individuals that extend beyond those services delivered to children.
While most of the children serving agencies are represented on the SESPN there are other key
players. The consultation was attended by a mix of front line and supervisory staff from CCN,
SDHU, MSDSB, ICDS (who also represented CTC), CFC and OCOF. Also joining were individuals
from the Sudbury East Community Health Centre, Alpha en partagé, and two municipal politicians
including the Mayor of St. Charles. Not present at the consultation but participating in the SESPN
are the Sudbury East Seniors Support, Employment Options, Mental Health and Addictions
services, VICARS, and the local Libraries. Of note there is no school board presence on the LSPN
at this time.
The group was engaged in a mapping exercise of the current model of service delivery Sudbury
East. Once again the “map” produced a distinctive model of service delivery. All of the children
serving agencies that are funded by MCYS or the Ministry of Health service this area from the
City of Greater Sudbury through service providers who travel to and from the area on a regular
basis.
The community of St. Charles provides a focus for coordinated service delivery through the
Fabien Gauthier Centre. The upper level of Ecole St-Charles Borromee has been converted to use for
service providing agencies and thus provides a co-location facility. Some of the SESPN have offices in this
centre including OCOF and Alpha en partagé. Other agencies from Sudbury and Manitoulin Sudbury use
the space to see clients. Other residents of the centre include Contact North, and the library.
The “map” in Sudbury East depicts the vast geography that is serviced by many of the same
agencies working in other areas of the Manitoulin Sudbury District. The picture is unique and
quite different. As indicated all of the specialized services in this area are delivered from the
home base in Greater Sudbury. CCN provides service co-ordination as they do throughout the
area and all of the agencies provide their services through the same, regularly scheduled
employee except for CAS who assigns cases to staff as they are encountered. The CCN
coordinator provides communication and coordination for cases that require multiple services.
Referrals come from schools, paediatricians, Health Sciences North and often are as a result of
parents own inquiries. Case management if facilitated by the agency that has the most direct
contact with the family. For those agencies who participate in the usage of CIMS, data is
available for case coordination.
The facility in St. Charles co-locates a number of services and provides space for others who
provide services to families and individuals beyond but including families with children. Alpha en
partagé is an agency providing literacy training and education upgrades with funding from the
Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities. When funding was decreased in 2011 the MSDSB
invested $35,000 in the agency to continue to fund the position of Community Liaison Officer to
ensure that the clients serviced by the DSB were able to receive the support they required to
upgrade their skills in order to find employment. This position continues to be funded to this
day. The liaison worker provides essential supports to residents of the area. This includes
families with children who need access to specialized service. The SESPN provides the capacity
for collaboration and coordination around family’s needs. The CCN case manager for this area
participates at the planning meetings and like other members of the SESPN responds to requests
from network members in a timely way through their connections. Other key players in terms of
children’s needs at the SESPN include the Sudbury East Community Health Centre, the DSB’s
integrated services case manager and staff from OCOF.
The Sudbury East Community Health Centre is a bilingual community health centre funded by the
LHIN. Community health centres have a mandate for both the delivery of clinical services (i.e.
doctors, nurse practioners, dieticians, social workers and registered nurses) and community
capacity building with a focus on health promotion and prevention. The Community
Development worker participates on the SESPN and makes herself available to support families
and children as opportunities arise. Most of her programming involves seniors as there has been
difficulty in recruiting volunteers for children’s services however support is available when
projects are initiated. The Community Health Clinic has a site in St. Charles, Noelville and Warren.
The DSB has a mandate to deliver social assistance, employment supports, housing and children’s
services throughout the Manitoulin Sudbury District. They have adopted an integrated service
model that provides for case management for any of those services that a client may require.
The DSB office is based in Warren with staff travelling to satellite offices in Noelville which they
share with College Boreal (a French language community college based in Greater Sudbury). Staff
will travel throughout the district to meet with clients – sometimes in their homes or convenient
locations. The DSB provides a number of vans that are used throughout the district in order to
support families and individuals accessing services. Partners at the SESPN utilize this service
when possible. The DSB participates on the SESPN and again benefits from the connections at
the planning table in being able to connect the clients to the resources they require.
Our Children Our Future provides Best Start Hub services throughout the Sudbury East area. The
main Hub is in Noelville in St. Antoine School. They offer play groups and a monthly Family Fun
Night. They partner with the school to deliver a french school readiness program. They travel to
schools in Alban, Monetville and Markstay to provide outreach services. They have a permanent
space in the Fabien Center in St. Charles that is used for outreach services and shared with
agencies requiring space – i.e. Wordplay. They participate with other agencies in the delivery of
Triple P and are involved with food security initiatives such as emergency food hampers and
collective kitchens. They partner with local organizations when possible to make things happen
such as the current efforts to create a splash pad in French River. They too are key players in the
SESPN.
The SDHU has an office in St. Charles. The two staff who work there deliver the generalized
health promotion/prevention services of the Health Until. Healthy Babies Healthy Children,
breast feeding support, prenatal classes and Triple P are all offered to families in Sudbury East
from the offices in Greater Sudbury. SDHU staff from St. Charles participate on the SESPN.
There are eight schools located in Sudbury East including 7 elementary schools and a high school.
All four school boards, French and English Catholic and Public operate schools in this area. None
of the school boards are represented on the SESPN. There are varying degrees of cooperation
and collaboration amongst service providers and individual schools. Partnering relationships
tend to be built on personal relationships as opposed to a more formal system of collaborating.
There are licenced childcare centres in Markstay Public School and Ecole Camille Perron in
Noelville. As well there is before and after school care provided at St. Thomas School in Warren.
The YMCA provides services in Markstay and Le Carrefour in the other two. West Nipissing
Childcare provides support to licenced home based daycares but spaces are difficult to find.
Many families who work in Greater Sudbury bring their children into childcare facilities located
there. If they are eligible for a subsidy the DSB will pay it to the Sudbury based daycare.
Viewing their planning and service delivery model through the lens of the integration scale
participants identified examples of coordination, collaboration and integration.
Autonomy
Agencies acting
completely
independently.
Cooperation
Coordination
Independent
agencies share
information &
undertake joint
activities.
Agency partners
agree to align
activities to
minimize
duplication under
some form of
protocol &
management
structure
Collaboration
Integration
Agencies are
separate but
pool resources
for common
goals, share
responsibility
under some form
of governance
and plan.
Agencies
dissolve
boundaries &
merge some or
all activities,
processes &/or
assets into a
single
org’n/system.
Sudbury East
LSPN work on
general projects,
events, share
agency updates
Refer clients to
each other
•
•
•
SDHU partners
with agencies
and school
boards to
deliver
programs
Hubs in schools
sharing space
with childcare
and education
Hub outreach
•
Use of CIMS
(but not by
all)
Members of the SESPN indicated there were very high levels of cooperation and informal networking
amongst themselves in terms of directing clients towards each other if those services were going to help
meet the client’s needs. They indicated however that there was no shared case management and that
the decision makers resided in Greater Sudbury.
While staff in this area have training in Triple P they indicated that there were barriers to delivering the
service and had not had much success in attracting parents to the service. Families are reluctant to travel
to other communities for services and want things available in their own community.
When presented with the integrated service model they indicated that they had a shared vision/mission
but for the most part they operated on the less integrated end of the scale.
The service delivery model in Sudbury East is impacted by the large geographic area that is
served, its proximity to Greater Sudbury and the expanded capacity of the service provider
network that engages cross sectoral partners from health, education and the municipalities. The
Sudbury East planning model in some ways has advanced the integrated service delivery model
far beyond the capacity of children’s service providers to incorporate a network of agencies and
individuals with some capacity to deal more holistically with families. Children serving agencies
for the most part provide services from a home base in Greater Sudbury but at the same time
have designed a model that allows them to tap into the rural culture that has become more
apparent in the district.
The SESPN did not so much offer suggestions for more or different ways of furthering integration
in their area but rather provide some lessons learned that might be incorporated in other areas.
1. Engaging cross discipline partners who are available in the area creates the conditions
for a more holistic approach to meeting family’s needs. Staff in the agencies serving
families know who to call to get needs met when they can’t do so themselves.
2. The use of available shared space in rural communities is very valuable to the delivery of
services to families.
3. Collaboration with school boards needs to become more formalized with consistent
policies in all boards for the delivery of early learning, child care and children’s services.
Schools are natural hubs and are present throughout rural districts and need to be
utilized as community centres.
4. The rural culture of the districts (smaller numbers of people, shared knowledge of
available services, “knowing each other”) often makes collaboration and coordination
easier in rural areas. When agencies employ individuals who live in the area that
capacity is enhanced. Services providers coming from larger, more urban areas do well
to tap into that culture.
5. Integrated service delivery in rural areas has to respond to the unique features of the
areas. The MSDSB has been innovative and supportive of efforts by children serving
agencies as well as other service providers in ensuring families (and other individuals)
are having their needs met. As DSSAB's are unique to the north the capacity of these
bodies could be reviewed to encourage participation in the delivery mechanisms of an
integrated service.