Sudbury church hosts round table on downtown issues

St. Andrew’s United Church in Greater Sudbury hosted a community round table on Friday focusing on mission and outreach services in the downtown.

The church is located in the heart of the city’s downtown core.

From the opioid crisis to homelessness and socio-economic challenges vulnerable people face in the region, the goal of the gathering was to discuss potential new initiatives and partnerships to address needs downtown.

“Really the main idea is to open up the communication channels between all these different organizations community organizations as well as churches that want to do mission and outreach work … in the downtown,” said Ralph McIntosh, the co-chair of St. Andrew’s United Church council.

“(Making) sure that they have the information they need to run programs that we don’t have to duplicate programs.”

The round table brought community leaders, local social service agencies, area service providers, church representatives and representatives of downtown businesses together.

McIntosh said it was about how they can all work together.

“Issues of social disconnection as well in the community and fear. Let’s make it fear and a sense of security that if we lock doors then that will make it all better. We know that that’s not the truth,” said Dave LeGrand, the minister of St. Andrew’s Church.

“There needs to be connecting and there needs to be relationship building,”

Church officials added they were also brainstorming how its downtown multi-purpose building could be used to support new initiatives.

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The round table’s organizers said the information gathered will be shared with community social organizations, area churches, the city council and Downtown Sudbury BIA.

“I think one of the things that often gets missed is we have these early successes with folks but we are not providing opportunities beyond that right,” said Jeff MacIntyre, with the BIA.

“How do you get from that first stage of recovering from homelessness or opioids into a recovery program or just getting back into a normalcy of your life?”