Huron County Community Safety and Well-Being Plan

by Bob Montgomery

Municipalities throughout Huron County and across the province are taking the next steps in the Priority Area Mapping of their Community Safety and Well-Being Plan.

Goderich Community Emergency Management Coordinator Michaela Johnston explains, in 2019 the province mandated that all of the municipalities in Ontario implement a Community Safety and Well-Being Plan to establish a multi-sectoral advisory committee at their expense. They were then to consult with the public and engage a group of specific stakeholders from nine sectors that included Education, Health, Children's Services, Mental Health and Addiction and then identify priority issues in each municipality that they would focus on.

Johnston says in 2021 the municipalities all worked together to identify four priorities and they were Mental Health and Addiction, Housing and Homelessness, Domestic Family Violence and Community Security. Johnston says Huron County is a bit of a leader in this in that many counties larger than Huron are just beginning the process, but Huron County has had a DART team or Domestic Assault Review Team since 1992. Huron County is now using the work they've already done to help other municipalities get started.

Johnston says all of the municipalities in Huron County are working from the same guidelines and will be reporting on their progress quarterly. She says one thing they've already achieved is that all of the different agencies that in the past worked in separate silos are now working together so they all know what everyone else is doing and they don't have to duplicate services.