2024 has been a very challenging year for so many in our community. More people are making the difficult decision to turn to food banks to help keep food on the table for their families. The Hope Centre continues to see significant increases in the number of people who are facing food insecurity. In fact, this year alone over 2400 people have used our food bank for the very first time. With the high cost of housing, transportation and groceries, this isn’t surprising. The Food Security crisis is disproportionately impacting the children of Welland. While only 20 percent of the population of Welland is under 18 years of age, 35 percent of those who access the food bank at The Hope Centre are children.
The gap between incomes and the cost of available rental units continues to widen, resulting in more people living unsheltered than at any other time in recent memory. It’s heart breaking to see more and more people living in tents and under bridges simply because housing is unattainable.
This year, The Hope Centre announced a partnership with the City of Welland and Canada Mortgage and Housing Commission to build a deeply affordable 6 unit building that will be used for supportive housing. Baker House will mean 6 individuals exiting homelessness and working with professional staff to address issues that led to homelessness. The Hope Centre is proud to be playing a role in working towards solving our housing crisis.
Lack of equitable access to mental health supports is another barrier faced by many in our community – these programs are either fee based or do not have the capacity necessary to meet the current needs of our population. Our Return 2 Hope counselling program, which provides free therapy for low income Wellanders, has been in high demand, leading to a wait list continues to grow. However, thanks to a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, we have been able to launch some outreach counselling to our community. Our group program takes place at the Welland Library, Main Branch, and has helped over 25 people this year.
The reality has been that over the past number of years the needs in our community have increased and become more complex. The Hope Centre continues to grow and evolve to help provide supports to those in our community in need of our services.
This isn’t something we have done alone. We have been able to support this increased number of Wellanders thanks to our community.
This year, as we see more and more people make difficult decisions in order to keep the lights on, or keep food on the table, we hope that this trend will continue. With more than one in ten Wellanders accessing the food bank this year, the need is more dire than ever. On behalf of the many Wellanders who count on The Hope Centre for supports, thank you to the entire community.
Jon Braithwaite, CEO
Stephanie Anger, President