What is the Community Advisory Board (CAB)?

The Community Advisory Board (CAB) supports community planning and priority identification for the federally funded Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy program. Reaching Home is designed to support individuals and families in 61 Designated Communities (including Belleville) across Canada in maintaining safe, stable, and affordable housing while also reducing chronic homelessness. The County of Hastings is the Community Entity, which will support initiatives within the Designated Community of Belleville. Funding through Reaching Home supports the delivery of eligible programs and activities within Housing Services, Prevention and Shelter Diversion and Client Support Services.  

CAB members provide advice to the County to:

• Create a Community Plan on homelessness
• Support in developing a Call for Proposals process to allocate funding into the community 
• Identify priority areas for immediate action to prevent and address chronic homelessness

With priority, the CAB strives to include people who have lived or are living with homelessness and or/who identify as Indigenous, First Nation (with or without status), Metis or Inuit. We will be undertaking a concurrent community-based process to ensure adequate representation from these communities. To support this, we encourage you to self-identify in the application form so that we can include you in the process.

Eligibility and Requirements

Members of the Community Advisory Board will give voice to the interests and needs of those experiencing homelessness, as well as to the homeless-serving community in Hastings County. We are inviting applications from Belleville who fall under the following sectors:

• Individuals with lived experience of homelessness
• Representatives from organizations serving women and families fleeing violence
• Representatives from organizations serving people experiencing homelessness
• Representatives from organizations serving youth
• Representatives from organizations serving seniors
• Representatives from Indigenous communities or organizations
• Representatives from newcomer-serving organizations
• Representatives from the police and correctional services
• Representatives from organizations focused on mental health and addictions
• Representatives from the Hastings County business community
• Representatives of veteran communities or organizations

The CAB will also include representatives from key government agencies serving people experiencing homelessness.

Application Criteria

Applicants must fulfill the following considerations to be eligible to apply:

•  They must not be an employee of the County of Hastings
• They must have the authority to represent their organization (if applicable)
• They must maintain contact with individuals or organizations in their sector to share information and identify priority issues related to the CAB objectives and activities
• They must attend all CAB meetings
• They must be able to serve the full term of the appointment (until March 31, 2028)
• They must come prepared by reading information provided prior to the meeting and actively participate by asking questions and offering ideas

Time Commitment

The CAB normally meets once a month in person for 1-2 hours. Extra hours may be required during some critical months of the fiscal year.
 

Remuneration

CAB members either serve as community volunteers or as designated representatives of their organization. Hence, they generally serve without remuneration. Representatives from Indigenous communities/organizations may be entitled to an honorarium.

Applications

The application process will remain open until 31 March, 2024. Applications can be submitted by any of the following methods:

• Complete the online application.
• Mail a physical copy of your application to: County of Hastings, Community & Human Services Department, 228 Church St, Belleville, ON K8N 3C4.
• Email a soft copy of your application to: cheerakathila@hastingscounty.com