Popular peer-based guidebook includes 400+ community resource listings for food, housing, clothing and more
Aurora, Ontario – December 15, 2020 – An updated community resource aiming to help people in York Region navigate their way through life is now available.
The Up Your Life guide is a collection of more than 400 community resource listings, tips, personal stories of struggle and resilience and other helpful information for people living in York Region. The updated edition has been revised to reflect changes to services due to the current pandemic and is sorted into sections that address issues like food and food insecurity, shelter and housing support, clothing and furniture and much more.
The guide also serves as a handy companion to Up Hub, York Region’s only comprehensive digital and print social services directory and storytelling initiative created in partnership with peers or people with lived experience dealing with mental health conditions and addictions.
“As we head into a holiday season that includes restrictions to help stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus, there’s a real cost to people’s mental health in terms of increased loneliness, social isolation, anxiety and depression,” says Charlene Biggerstaff, Up Hub’s project coordinator. “We hope this guide will serve as a gift to the community to help them cope during these challenging times.”
“The updated Up Your Life guide is an easy-to-navigate directory that can help community members connect to key services, with new sections for youth, newcomers, abuse survivors, seniors, 2SLGBTQ+ folks, new mothers, First Nations, Metis and Inuit and other vulnerable groups,” adds Biggerstaff.
Formerly known as the York Region on a Limited Budget book, the guide was originally inspired by a group of individuals who wondered how they could eat and live better, but do so inexpensively. A committee was formed by people living on limited incomes and they were given an opportunity to research options for stretching one’s budget. The first edition of the guide was published in 1997 as a result of their work.
Since then, Your Support Services Network (YSSN), a community-based, non-profit agency offering a range of case management and community crisis services throughout York Region and South Simcoe to support people with a developmental disability and/or a serious mental illness, has continued to update, print and publish the guide, with the assistance of peers and the public.
Being a part of the project has had a lasting impact on those involved: “I developed my own family of people that actually cared about me,” shares Melody, a current member of Up Hub’s Peer Advisory Committee, comprised of people with lived experience with mental health conditions and addictions who hope that their collective information and personal stories will pay-it-forward and help others navigate through similar situations.
The guide has grown in popularity over the years and has garnered the interest and generous support of valued community partners. More than 30,000 copies of the previous edition were distributed.
The new Up Your Life guide, made possible in large part thanks to a $457,600 Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) Grow grant from 2017, will be available at community service agencies across York Region by the end of the year, but only in limited quantities due to funding restrictions. YSSN hopes that the local community will continue to help pay-it-forward by supporting the initiative so that the publication will be accessible and available to those who need it in the future.
“Each copy of the Up Your Life guide has the potential to connect our community to vital services and resources,” emphasizes Kimberly Thorn, YSSN’s executive director. “We’re grateful to our partners and funders like OTF for ensuring that we reach our goal of helping economically vulnerable people more easily access community services.”
Your Support Services Network (YSSN) is a community-based non-profit agency that offers a range of case management and community crisis services throughout York Region and South Simcoe helping people with developmental disabilities, children with complex needs and people with mental health conditions navigate through life’s challenges. For more information: www.yssn.ca
The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) is an agency of the Government of Ontario, and one of Canada’s leading granting foundations. OTF awarded $115 million to 644 projects last year to build healthy and vibrant communities in Ontario. www.otf.ca
For more information, to arrange an interview or to receive a media copy of the guide, please contact:
Jumol Royes, Communications Specialist, at jroyes@yssn.ca or 416-917-0285 OR
Charlene Biggerstaff, Project Coordinator, at cbiggerstaff@yssn.ca or 905-960-6525