Mount Forest - "High, Happy, Healthy"

June 10th and 11th the Legal Clinic attended its space in Mount Forest (herein referred to affectionately as 'the Forest') for the first time this summer. The town's motto "High, Happy, Healthy" is clearly visible from the water tower as one approaches from neighbouring towns.

We are using space located in the town’s old post-office, on the second floor. On weeks in the Forest, we will be one day in an office used pre-dominantly by the Rural Women’s Support Program (RWSP) – a wonderful program run by one of our partner agencies, Women in Crisis. RWSP is a program designed to bring all the programs and services that Women in Crisis offers to the County. Our partnership with RWSP seems most suited given our shared goal of increasing accessibility of services to people who live in the County and have no means of traveling to Guelph. We thank them for allowing us to use both their Palmerston and Mount Forest locations.

What one will immediately notice on their way up Highway 6 from Guelph towards the Forest is the incredible amount of highway improvements that has begun for the summer. The trip up to the Forest generally takes an hour. With the improvements underway, Richard and I discovered that our commute has been extended by 50% and takes closer to an hour and a half. For regular travelers to, from and in Toronto our complaints may fall on unsympathetic ears, however, this is the North of Wellington County where inconveniences such as this are not as routine as morning and evening traffic to and from the Core. I wonder how this will affect low-income persons attempting to travel to Guelph to access services. With up to 50% increase in travel time to Guelph cab fares will no doubt be substantially increased as travelers sit in traffic. Precious dollars spent filing up one’s tank with gas to attend an appointment in Guelph won’t go as far either as people find themselves sitting in traffic, idling. I suspect volunteer driving services may not be able to shuttle as many people around as they would have before if travel-times are substantially increased by these delays.

Highway Improvements – a hassle for Richard and I. A potential new barrier low-income persons in the County may now be forced to deal with.

On a more positive note, we were delighted to be approached by a reporter from the Mount Forest Confederate last week. We spent some time with him answering questions and explaining why the Clinic had set up the County offices and what we hoped to achieve. We look forward to seeing an article in the next edition of the Confederate!

Richard and I were a bit perturbed to discover a number of our posters we had put up had either been removed or covered up from various ‘event boards’ doted around the town. Although we try to find room for everyone’s postings, others appear to simply take the easier route and simply take-down or cover-up postings they deem unimportant… In our conversations with other County agencies we’ve come to learn that one of the biggest challenges faced by service providers is getting the word out there that they are there to help. Even if you can do this, people may still simply assume you cannot assist them with their particular issue and may still not come to see what you have to offer. I suspect this will be an ongoing logistical issue: ensuring our posters remain up so that people actually see them and know we are in their communities and encouraging people to feel comfortable enough to come and ask how we can help. The former can be addressed with a health supply of posters; the latter may prove more of a challenge.