Consolidated services contact sheet coming soon

Draft of the “one stop shop” services contact pamphlet being developed by community wellness organizations for North Hastings residents. / SUBMITTED

Bancroft residents should keep their eye out for an local services contact pamphlet in their tax bills, says chair of the Bancroft Area Support Team and supervisor for Bancroft's community and human services office Andra Kauffeldt.

A Bancroft community safety and well-being committee initiative will consolidate local service numbers to one place for North Hastings residents. These can include when and how to contact public works, social services, emergency services and/or community organizations.

“What always happens is something happens and nobody knows who they're supposed to contact,” said Kauffeldt. “You end up getting, ‘Well, we'll phone the police.' The police get called for... garbage in the park, or how the road conditions are or all kinds of things that are not police matters or business at all — but nobody knows who they're supposed to call.”

The first draft of the one page pamphlet was presented to the committee Jan. 31. It was developed in partnership with Bancroft OPP, North Hastings Children's Services and Hastings County.

The initiative was sparked late last year so town staff would have a “one stop shop” to refer to, to direct residents to services, Kauffeldt explained. 

“We didn't want it to be a directory assistance book because we all have those and they're too big, and there's too much information, and no one knows where to find anything,” she said.

The first draft is now being corrected and fine-tuned following recommendations from the committee. Kauffeldt said once it is finalized for Bancroft it could be modified to be sent out by other municipalities as well.

“Our goal really is that this would be printed and put in everybody's tax bills so that everybody gets this resource,” she said.

“We could customize the backside to represent what the biggest needs are for each individual municipality. But ultimately it would be up to them to do that we just wanted to be able to provide the catalyst and the footprint.”