Community Living Parry Sound (CLPS) is getting ready to shift to high gear in how it supports its members.
Tricia Bain, CLPS’s Manager of Individualized and Family Services says thanks to last year’s Ontario Trillium Foundation’s $130,000 grant, the organization can now deliver support services to people who need it the most both virtually and in person.
“A part of the grant was funding to support people to get the technology that they needed to connect with friends and family as well as our staff,” she says.
She says the funding secured the purchasing of devices, ranging from laptops to smartwatches for 19 of its members that they otherwise could not afford.
Bain says CLPS then created a tech learning lab, which she calls the next step for the program.
“We will train people how to use that technology to do things and find out the things that they need to know for their life,” she says.
Bain says CLPS will use devices like iPads and i-watches along with some assistive technologies like voice-controlled lights that help some people live their life more independently.
Bain adds that CLPS will also provide recreational and relationship-building support services like connecting people to places in town where they find people that they like and enjoy being with.
The grant also helped make Community Connect, the one-stop-shop app for person-directed support integrating all of CLPS’s virtual services.
Bain says CLPS is putting the call out for anyone interested in helping or has space to share, to reach out to them through their website, Twitter, or Facebook page.
“If anybody wants to help with teaching people to learn technology, we much prefer non-segregated and inclusive places where people can find connections to mentors and coaches that can help them,” she says.