The LPCRC officially shut down in June 2012, though it is still operating with reduced hours on a volunteer basis. The centre was forced to close after losing funding from Employment Ontario, who changed their service delivery model in 2010. An Ontario Government document reads: “The majority of unemployed Ontarians whom E.O. serves require minimal intervention. Interactions with these clients should be made as efficient as possible through the use of low-cost, self-serve tools (e.g., online resources) to allow staff to focus on more intensive cases.” But almost everyone the DEPARTMENT spoke with at the LPCRC recalled how much they had appreciated the Centre’s personalized approach and the help they received from staff. One service user told us that, while he’d been to other employment centres, “this is the only one I liked. The other centres, everything was new, the tables, the door. But there was no soul. I couldn’t find a job in those centres.”

When the DEPARTMENT visited the Ralph Thornton Centre to do an anniversary maintenance visit one year after we installed our comemmorative sign, a team of volunteers were running the Centre.  Previously “the heartbeat” of the whole Ralph Thornton Centre, the LPCRC is struggling to stay open at all.  Printouts, photocopies and faxes now cost money and when a computer breaks there is no one to fix it.

 

Lewis Pearsall CRC   Memory Archive