Cornwall Ontario — The Social Development Council of Cornwall and Area will be hosting monthly Community Voices meetings at the Boys and Girls Club of Cornwall/SDG. Each session will occur on the 3rd Monday of each month from 5:00pm to 7:00pm. A free dinner will be offered at each Community Voices session and childcare will be provided. All are welcome to our Community Voices Meetings; however the intended participants are those who live in crisis and who will benefit the most from the services offered.

Each Community Voices session will have a theme and will be split into two parts: The themes will rotate from month to month in order to help coordinate group discussions and guest speakers. The first part of each session will be a group discussion where a positive conversation will be facilitated by members from local social support organizations. These discussions will be on the topics that affect people living in poverty the most. The goal ofthe discussion is to help those living in poverty to better understand some ofthe barriers they face and to help the Social Development Council and other local organizations to better understand some of the issues that are most present for those living in poverty. The second part of each session will be a guest speaker invited from local organizations and agencies.

The goal of these guest speakers is to help participants to better understand the different organizations the services that they offer. We have asked that the guest speakers not limit their discussion to the services offered by their organizations but also focus on some of the root causes ofthe issues that those organizations are designed to help with.

The first session will be held on September 23rd 2013 from 5:00pm to 7:00pm at the Boys and Girls Club of Cornwall/SDG at 506 First E, Cornwall, ON K6H 1L7. The theme for this first session will be ‘The Law and Your Home’ with guest speakers from the Legal Clinic of SDG. Please join us for a free spaghetti dinner and community voices discussions.