Simcoe Open House, Celebrates Growth In Norfolk

NEW LANSDOWNE CHILDREN’S CENTRE SIMCOE SITE

UNIFIES CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES, TEAMS

Simcoe, ON – Less than 24 months after cutting the ribbon on Colborne Street, Lansdowne Children’s Centre is inviting community stakeholders to another Grand Opening in Simcoe.

On Friday, April 28th the region’s Children’s Treatment Centre and SmartStart Hub will celebrate the opening of their new Norfolk site at 387 Cedar Street.

“We’re very excited to welcome the community into our new home in Simcoe, and continue to grow as a neighbour and partner to families in Norfolk County,”

shared the Executive Director of Lansdowne Children’s Centre, Rita-Marie Hadley.

“Our service providers have worked very hard to make improvements on our previous location. We are all dedicated to evolving service to meet the growing needs of our region’s children and their families.”

Improvements in the new location include: larger, open spaces all at ground level; accessible parking; improved lighting; more treatment rooms. The new location unifies Lansdowne service teams under one roof, who were previously operating out of two buildings on Colborne Street.

“Having our teams able to work together, separated only by a short hallway, improves efficiency for delivering and receiving services. It’s easier for clients, families and multi-discipline care teams.”

The OPEN HOUSE event scheduled for Friday, April 28th will begin at 2:00 p.m. with opening ceremonies and ribbon cutting at 3:00 p.m. including Lansdowne’s Board Chair John Bradford and Norfolk resident and board member, Rick Rozak. Community members, especially families eager to learn more about how Lansdowne Children’s Centre supports children and youth with special needs, are invited to tour the building and meet Lansdowne service providers.

KIDS NEED ROOM TO GROW, SO DO WE

In January 2023, the Ontario government designated Lansdowne Children’s Centre as the region’s SmartStart Hub, providing a single point of access to government funded child development services and supports that include Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Child and Youth Workers and Social Workers.

Lansdowne’s Brantford site at 39 Mount Pleasant Street has traditionally fielded child development support referrals for the region that includes Brantford, Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk Counties, and Six Nations of the Grand River and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, working in partnership with agencies like Haldimand-Norfolk REACH, Contact Brant and EarlyON Centres.

While not much has changed for who receives referrals, since the fall of 2022 Lansdowne has experienced a spike in the number of referrals being received.

“Our intake services team experienced our largest wave of referrals last September, and we are still feeling the pressure of population changes in our region.”

Prior to 2019, Lansdowne Children’s Centre was already working with the provincial government around need for a larger Children’s Treatment Centre in Brantford with limitations of the retrofitted former school that has served as headquarters since 1998. Capacity limits at the Mount Pleasant location create challenges keeping pace with referrals, compounded by the need for more space for treatment and equipment, and the need to improve accessibility in an older structure that was not purpose-built.