Town hall meeting planned on downtown safety issues

The Downtown Association has been talking to city police, the Canadian Mental Health Association and Social Services, to organize an open house on Queen Street safety and security issues later this month.

Nicholas Rosset, the Downtown Association's chair, told a meeting of his board of directors last week that the upcoming 'downtown dialogue' will be modeled after a sometimes-heated town hall-style gathering on July 4.

"Each of those services is going to present to the membership, explain a little bit about where they fit in with safety and security within our downtown, and how to utilize their services," Rosset said.

"We're going to have a little bit of opportunity for questions.... It's going to be positivity and constructive-driven, but I think it's going to be beneficial."

"In a lot of cases, our membership experience something and they don't know the right resource to utilize.

"I'm really excited about it because I hear it a lot, either an issue doesn't get dealt with or reported or is mishandled in some way.

"We have a lot of resources – there's overlap, there's gaps, so I'm hoping this identifies some of that and helps membership," Rosset said, adding: "That's coming up toward the end of the month."

SooToday will post additional details about the meeting's time and place when they become available 

Board member Angela Romano expressed hope that Downtown Association members will be reminded to actively distribute contact information for the local Downtown Ambassadors.

"I think there's a lot of new staff or people coming and going. Maybe it's time for another push," Romano said.

The Downtown Ambassador program started two years ago.

It's not a police or security service, but it provides the following activities:

• provide street outreach in Downtown Sault Ste. Marie
• promote safety and cleanliness
• be there for residents and visitors to Sault Ste. Marie
• connect the downtown community
• distribute harm reduction supplies
• provide resources to the most vulnerable
• administer naloxone, CPR and first aid
• assess individuals and provide social services referrals
• provide directions to citizens and tourists (who to contact and frequently-asked questions)

Downtown Ambassadors are uniformed peer workers employed by Canadian Mental Health Association.