Serving the needs of the community
By Jim Morrison
www.thesuburban.com
Kirkland resident, Kim Reid knew as a teen that dealing with adolescences was to be his career path.
“My ex-girlfriend worked with retarded children in Dicksville, Quebec. I was 19 years old when I was running the local group home,” recalls Reid.
Reid worked for 14 years as a Child Care Worker with juvenile delinquents at Youth Horizons, and the Batshaw Center. He was responsible for designing clinical treatment plans, counseling of youth and families, while teaching life skills.
Reid would move on to run Youth for Christ, a drop in center in Pointe Claire for juveniles to have a drug and alcohol free place to go and be safe. On Rock Community services was born nine years ago by a chance encounter.
“An 81-year-old resident asked me if I could store items for her food bank. She slowly drifted away over time, and we became responsible in servicing the 43 families we had at that time”, said Reid.
Pete Vasiliev came to help out with the renovations and realized that this was the place for him. He works as a ministry team-leader, and taking care of music and book store orders, and is involved in the Food Bank operation.
On Rock community services is located a minute away from À Ma Baie in Pierrefonds. This area is rated as one of the poorest postal codes in Canada, where the average household income is $12,000 a year.
“In 2010, 120 families were using our services; and we now check 200 families, so the demand is increasing,” Reid told The Suburban.
There are over 50 volunteers which help in running the centre on a daily basis.
A community dinner is open Tuesday and Thursday evenings, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., and ranges from $2 a person to $5 a family. It provides a low cost meal to all who come. Forty people normally take part in this healthy mid-week supper and the opportunity to socialize.
Reid and Vasiliev prepare food boxes every Monday for pick-ups. Deliveries are made by Tuesday if pick-ups cannot be done. People are charged $5 for this service as a way of illustrating responsibility.
The goals for the upcoming year are to get a new stove, and a fork lift to navigate through the $1,000,000 worth of food that will be distributed this year.
“We offer a service which meets the needs of the community,” a proud Reid states, heading off to deliver supplies.
Monthly contributions are encouraged through food donations or volunteerism to sustain the programs and services.
More information on On Rock Community Services can be found at www.onrock.org or [514] 696-1905.
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