Question 1: Tell us a bit about your CHC, catchment area and community that you serve.

ConnectWell Community Health- Renfrew County, provides community-based primary health care and health promotion programs and social services. We have offices located in three towns (Beachburg, Cobden and Eganville) and we provide services to residents within Renfrew County. Our catchement area is both expansive and rural with many residents not having family doctors or care providers.

Question 2: Tell us about your SNAP Project.

Our SNAP Project took on three separate initiatives with distinct goals.

1. Resource Clinics: Increase access to system navigation support for community members not rostered to the CHC by offering System Navigation Clinics (“Resource Clinics”).
2. Friendly Visiting: Develop a pilot project to recruit and train 3-5 volunteers in more rural areas to work with and extend the reach of the System Navigator through Friendly Visiting.
3. Block Connecting: Increase social connections and neighbourhood networks in at least one rural neighbourhood through pilot testing the Abundant Community Edmonton (ACE) model and using an Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach.

Question 3: Why was it important to Enhance the reach and resources for the System Navigator?

It was important to enhance the reach and resources of the System Navigator because our large rural area sees a lot of need for social service support and many residents are unattached to family care providers. Expanding the reach of our System Navigator to residents not rostered to our CHC has helped connect these community members to resources they otherwise might have access to.

Question 4: How was this achieved?

At our Resource Clinics, all community members (both rostered and non-rostered to our CHC) were given in-person access to our System Navigator as well as representatives of eight other community organizations that helped clients with items such as financial aid, free counselling services, housing, and community employment services. Through our Friendly Visiting initiative, we were able to create a partnership with another local organization already offering this service to expand their reach into more rural areas. Together, we recruited and fully trained two new Friendly Visting volunteers who are visiting socially isolated clients within our catchment area. Finally, through our Block Connecting pilot project, we researched the Abundant Community Edmonton model, recruited and trained two volunteers to be Block Connectors, and supported these Block Connectors in brainstorming and engaging with their neighbours to strengthen relationships and community development on their blocks.

Question 5: What has the impact of your SNAP project been?

The networking that took place at our Resource Clinics between the nine organizations present, was very impactful and beneficial for all. Each organization stated that they now have increased awareness of what other services exist in the community, so they are better able to refer clients to appropriate locations. Furthermore, twenty-six community members were helped in-person and linked to resources because of these clinics.

With our Friendly Visiting initiative, the partnership we have created with Carefor Health and Community Services has proven to be very useful. We have prevented duplication of services, avoided working in separate health silos, and pooled our resources. As a result, as have been able to simply expand their current system further into our rural service areas and created something that is sustainable. Two new volunteers were recruited and trained and have begun friendly visits to new socially isolated clients.

Through our Block Connector pilot project, we have been able to teach and spread the concept of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) to local community members, encouraging them to look at what is strong in their community and work with that, instead of looking at what is wrong and wait for outside help to fix it. This project has been empowering for our two Block Connectors, who have both reported that taking on this role has had a positive impact on their health, wellbeing and sense of connection to their community.

Question 6: What have been the challenges around your respective SNAP Projects?

The biggest challenge to our Resource Clinics was attendance. Attendance at our first resource clinic was lower than we had originally hoped for. While this was initially discouraging, after chatting with other organizations who ran similar events in the area, attendance at our clinics was higher than that recorded at similar events offered within the project time frame. Some reasons why these types of events tend to record low attendance could include:

• –  The sensitive nature of the topics addressed (finances, housing, mental health, etc) may be difficult for people to feel comfortable talking about.
• –  Working individuals who have young families may struggle to have the time to make it out to such events.
• –  Transportation is a known barrier in our rural area with zero public transit available.One of the biggest challenges to our other two SNAP project initiatives (Friendly Visiting and Block Connecting) was time. Accomplishing all the goals we set within the project end date proved to be difficult because the nature of so many of the tasks. Recruiting volunteers for our Friendly Visiting and Block Connectors who were a “right fit” for the program goals required careful consideration and time to complete all phases of the volunteer onboarding process.

Furthermore, ABCD requires patience, thoughtfulness, and time to build relationships and social capital.

Question 7: What impact do you hope your evaluation and increased support will leave for clients in the longterm?

We hope to see all aspects of our SNAP project carry forward into the future. After surveying all partner organizations who attended our Resource Clinics, there was a stated desire from all to see these events continue. Our plan at ConnectWell is to run these clinics once per year and continue to invite all interested community organizations to join. Our hope is that these events reach more unattached and isolated clients as we build momentum and word spreads about these events.

Our Friendly Visiting partnership with Carefor has laid great groundwork for sustainability. We will continue to meet monthly with Carefor to ensure communication on roles in the partnership is maintained. We will regularly promote Friendly Visiting as an option for new volunteers, for providers looking for legitimate options social prescribing referrals, and to clients who are identified as being socially isolated or lonely.

The Block Connectors we recruited have been fully onboarded as ConnectWell volunteers. As such, they will continue to receive ConnectWell staff support as do all our volunteers. We hope to see many relational networks, social clubs and block parties coming out of this neighbourhood for years to come!