Grand opening for Welland agency’s new location
The John Howard Society’s Welland office has a new home.
In May the organization that runs a host of community support services including the Job Gym packed up its Niagara-Street location and made the move downtown to 225 East Main St. On Tuesday staff and community supporters gathered to give the building an official grand opening complete with tours, speeches and a ribbon cutting.
“We have expanded services so we needed a much bigger space,” said Deanna Villella, manager. She explained that the new facility allows the society to host all of its services in one central location while before individuals had to travel to St. Catharines for some services.
The organization that assists with employment, prevention, education and justice issues sees about 300 clients pass through its office daily.
“Accessibility, that’s what was important to us,” Villella said, noting that the central downtown location was a big draw. She added that many individuals come to the Job Gym for one-on-one employment counselling. With factories closing down individuals who have been employed at the same job for a long period lack the skills needed in both the job hunt and further employment Villella explained. That’s where the gym comes in with workshops and access to 20 public computer workstations where clients can learn to track down jobs online.
“We know how hard it is around here,” said Welland MP Malcolm Allen who visited the grand opening. He explained that as Welland’s manufacturing industry transitions services like the Job Gym are essential in keeping workers connected to and trained for the transition.
Kristy Paningua is one of those individuals who just needed a little help in transferring her skills. As a long-time retail worker with training in police foundations Paningua visited the Job Gym after coming off a maternity leave.
“All my work experience was in retail,” said Paningua, who explained after some one-on-one time with an employment counsellor she began to volunteer at the society with the probation intake program. Six months later the society hired her as a youth counsellor and now she helps run the targeted initiatives for older workers program. She explained that the one-on-one employment counselling was a critical step in her transition.
“I would probably still be working retail,” she said hypothesizing on how things would have played out if not for the Job Gym.
As part of the grand opening a special dedication took place naming the O’Gorman Room. Jack O’Gorman, who died six months ago, spent 10 years tirelessly running the society’s diversion program that provides alternate forms of sentencing for first-time low-level criminal offenders.
“He was just a tremendous human being,” said director of programming Jay Gemmell, who pointed out that sleet, snow, hail or rain O’Gorman never missed a day in court.
Villella pointed out that while the upper floor is fully renovated the lower floor of the building is still being worked on. However, when it is completed Villella said it will function as a home for the society’s partner agencies.
“We’re kind of creating a community hub,” she said.
By Steve Henschel
New home for John Howard. Kristy Paningua of the John Howard Society shows off one of the 20 new public workstations at the society’s Job Gym. The organization celebrated the grand opening of its new location at 225 East Main St.
