Housing Social Worker
The Housing Social Worker Program currently consists of one professional counsellor/social worker who works in the non-profit social housing communities of the Peterborough Housing Corporation. Her main job responsibilities are to:
- Assist households in social housing communities to maintain successful tenancies/occupancy, i.e. to help prevent evictions
- To develop and maintain positive relations between housing providers and residents
- To undertake community development activities aimed at enhancing community capacity, optimism, and wellbeing
Because of the complexity of the skills required for this work, the Housing Social Worker has a strong background in counselling and is a member of the Community Counselling Team at CCRC where she is able to draw from the support and expertise of a team of professionals.
The program, which began in 2004, is funded by the City of Peterborough and administered by CCRC. The preventative nature of the program has resulted in substantial financial savings, since failed tenancies are very costly to the City, not to mention the toll they take in suffering to those who lose their housing.
The Housing Social Worker, in addition of her day-to-day work of responding to problems, has initiated or supported numerous community development activities. These include: a children’s After School Program and Homework Club, a teen Get Real Program, food banks at two communities, and a community kitchen. In addition, she has provided extensive programming for children and youth in the summer and during school vacations, in partnership with the City of Peterborough Department of Recreation. This programming has provided a variety of recreational activities as well as lifeskills training for children and youth who would otherwise be unlikely to have access to these.
CCRC takes pride in having this important work as a part of our programming.
