Yesterday (May 1st, 2023) was a very important day for ourselves and other local agencies and services in our communities. We held the “Unmuting” event at Stone Tree Golf & Fitness. This event had the purpose of spreading the word about what each other does to help people in Grey Bruce. Each one of us works together to help individuals who need assistance. It was a great chance to network, ask questions and learn from each other. It’s been a while since all of us have been in a room together and there were plenty of new faces that it was good to get to know.

In attendance:

United Way Bruce Grey

M’Wikwedong Indigenous Friendship Centre

Canadian Mental Health Association

REACH

Salvation Army

South East Grey Community Health Centre

Grey County

Owen Sound Regional Hospital

SOS/EMS

Brockton Family Health Team

Women’s House

OSHaRE

Grey Bruce Public Health

Owen Sound Police Services

The exercise that we did was picking a random out of a category bag and creating a person who we each could see at our workplaces. For example, Betty is; female, 65+, single, underweight, developmentally delayed, terminally ill, needing food support, couch surfing, and has no I.D. How do we help Betty? Everyone would then brainstorm at each table and submit it and then there would be a group discussion.

We are hoping to do this event semi-annually or annually to better serve our community members as information is constantly changing or it’s a great way to ask questions in person!