SOS takes the stage at State of Canada’s Cities Summit

Supportive Outreach Services (SOS), a Grey County-based program providing life-saving outreach, was featured on a national stage this week at the State of Canada’s Cities Summit in Ottawa. SOS participated in the summit alongside other programs and services, all sharing details about the valuable work underway to improve communities across the country. The summit, which ran December 3 and 4, brought together hundreds of urban professionals, policymakers, business leaders, community advocates, and academics. Together, they discussed and assessed the health of Canadian cities and explored solutions to make them better places to live. The theme of this year’s conference was Better Places for a Better Canada: Leveraging the Local.

On Wednesday, December 3, United Way Executive Director Francesca Dobbyn represented the SOS team on the panel Investing in People and Place: Strengthening Social and Physical Infrastructure. This panel explored the social infrastructure that supports communities, and keeps people connected to each other and vital services.

The SOS program has been operating in Grey County for several years, bringing together a wide range of community partners to deliver coordinated care. SOS provides support for individuals experiencing homelessness, mental health challenges, substance use issues, or who have difficulty accessing services in traditional ways. The mobile team meets people where they are to deliver medical care, mental health support, harm reduction services, and helps connect individuals to housing and shelter services. The program has had a significant impact on clients and the communities served, and its success can be measured by the testimonials of clients, the uptake in services, and the reduction in opioid-related poisonings and deaths in the region. Since launching in 2021, SOS has provided over 12,000 services to vulnerable community members. The program serves approximately 100 individuals at any given time, many of whom would not access care through conventional pathways.

“The SOS program is being watched closely by communities across the country,” explains Ms. Dobbyn. “They’re looking at replicating the collaborative approach to community care. Together, we’re not just making a difference, we’re saving lives.”

Partners of the SOS program include Grey County, the Canadian Mental Health Association Grey Bruce, Brightshores Health System, United Way of Bruce Grey, OSHaRE, Grey Bruce Public Health, Safe ‘N Sound, and close to 20 other partner organizations. SOS outreach services are funded by the Province of Ontario with additional support through generous community donations.

Ms. Dobbyn is the co-chair of the SOS program alongside Grey County’s Paramedic Chief, Kevin McNab. At the Summit, Ms. Dobbyn was joined on the panel by representatives from the social change organization Tamarack Institute, the arts and culture research organization Mass Culture, the non-profit transformative public spaces organization Evergreen, and professional planner and Dalhousie University associate professor Ren Thomas.

The State of Canada’s Cities Summit welcomes more than 500 attendees from around the country each year. Other topics of the conference included delivering housing in Canada, advancing livable communities, building one economy place by place, main street design, food security, innovation and much more. Full conference details including programming and speaker bios can be found online at https://canurb.stateofcitiessummit.ca/.

Learn more about SOS and the life-saving program online at www.grey.ca/sos or www.unitedwayofbrucegrey.com/sos-helps/.

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For media inquiries contact Rob Hatten, communications manager, at rob.hatten [at] grey.ca (rob[dot]hatten[at]grey[dot]ca) or call 519-373-1592.​

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