The Sudbury Community Service Centre marked 50 years Friday of helping those in need.
The organization began in 1972 with an $8,000 budget. Since then, the organization has expanded to offer a number of programs and services for range of individuals in need.
Kevin Cooper, executive director at the Sudbury Community Service Centre (SCSC), said he’s proud of how far they’ve come.
“We work a lot with the developmental services community, we work a lot with First Nations community, we work with low-income Canadians, providing them with support and actually helping them with completing taxes and with accessing government benefits,” Cooper said.
“We have a great team here … We hope to keep doing it for another 50 years.”
One individual the centre has helped is Reid Martin, who lives with a developmental disability. He came to SCSC seven years ago when he was living on his own.
“I lived by myself and I guess I couldn’t get any help, so I went to Sudbury Community Service Centre and they helped me,” Martin said.
The organization helped him maintain his independence by offering him a support worker to help with groceries, laundry and cooking.
Martin now lives at L’Arche Sudbury and has maintained that relationship with the centre.
Cathy Chartrand works at L’Arche as a house support assistant. She said a number of SCSC support workers are still Martin’s friends.
“He goes to the Sudbury Wolves games faithfully,” said Chartrand.
“When he came here, it was continued on that their support staff would go with him because it was so important for him to maintain those relationships that he already formed.”
Chartrand said she believes a key focus of SCSC is giving those in need their own independence.
“They support people in the greater community to support their independence for as long as they can,” she said.
“In turn have a large part of helping people discover when they need a little bit more support, so it’s a really essential service.”
SCSC estimates they have helped hundreds of thousands of people over the years. They say they hope to expand some of their programs in the future.
