About Us

Community Connection is an Accredited non profit community information and referral service agency. Our mandate is to connect people and organizations with information and resources to enable them to help themselves and others.

Community Connection's mission is to be the most effective gateway to the community's health, social and disaster service networks.

History

The original notion of “Citizen Advice Bureaus” can be traced back to the 1950’s in response to community situations where people were disoriented, displaced or requiring special assistance in coping with daily living.

Community Connection had its beginnings in 1969 in the Stayner Town Hall as a crisis intervention program staffed by community volunteers. The organization was incorporated as a charity in 1972 with a mission to:

• Assemble and maintain information on all aspects of cultural, social, economic and personal matters for the purpose of providing a free service to the public
• Refer the public to the appropriate person, agency, corporation or government body for assistance with such matters
• Maintain confidentiality consistent with the best interests of the client
• Identify unmet needs in the community.

For almost thirty years Community Connection operated a community thrift store and held numerous fund raising events to support their helpline services.

By 2000, emerging technology began to provide revenue generation through specialized data collections and portal developments which resulted in closing of the thrift store and elimination of fund raising events.

In 2002, after a history of five involuntary office moves in twenty-five years, the organization established the Community Resource Centre – a multi-tenant non-profit centre which provides sustainable office space and shared meeting rooms for almost two dozen organizations and their programs.

In the early 2000’s, word began to spread from the United States about a new three digit telephone number 211 and the benefits of three digit dialing.  In Ontario, Community Connection was an early leader active on numerous steering committees and eventually became involved in the first Ontario network pilot for 211 Simcoe County, 211 Toronto and 211 Niagara.

Today, Community Connection is one of eight organizations networked to provide 211 services to all of Ontario.  The agency’s service area has grown to eleven counties with a population of 1.2 million people.

 The agency continues to be engaged at the local level with numerous collaborative relationships and initiatives across the region.