Community Living Ontario Sunset Country

Community Living Ontario Sunset Country (formerly North 1 Regional Council) met in Dryden on October 21^st and 22^nd.  The council is a joint venture between Community Living Associations in Dryden, Atikokan, Fort Frances, Kenora, Sioux Lookout and Red Lake working with citizens who have intellectual disabilities.

The agenda during the two-day event featured inclusive education, inadequate Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) payments, living arrangements for people with intellectual disabilities, and the most urgent issue being the lack of Provincial government funding in the form of wages for front line workers. 

Many Associations in Ontario, as well as locally, are facing a crisis brought on by the lack of consistent funding and recognition of the value of the work that Associations undertake in giving care to these members of our communities.  The Provincial government has spent the last two decades closing Provincial facilities and integrating residents into communities.  The vast majority of communities have welcomed the repatriation of people with intellectual disabilities. 

All Associations present at the meeting vowed to work together to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities have the same opportunity to achieve their hopes, dreams and needs in the same manner that most of us take for granted.