Be Part of the Solution Lambton

By: Sarah Churchill

January 2025

Understand, Take Action, Be Part of the Solution - Homelessness in Lambton

In Lambton County, community members are facing a new reality that many Ontario municipalities are simultaneously coming to terms with. Local homelessness is becoming increasingly visible, complex, and chronic. This new territory has led to questions, concerns and conversations across the community.

Homelessness is the topic of every local government committee, newspaper front-page, and dinner table conversation. People understand that there is a problem, and a sense of urgency to solve it. But with insufficient affordable housing stock, inflation, and social housing waitlists, where does one focus their efforts? These community questions have led to the launch of Be Part of the Solution, a public campaign promoting education, action, and community-driven solutions to homelessness

The Need for a Campaign

Be Part of the Solution stemmed from priorities identified at Lambton’s 2023 Stronger Together Summit. This event brought together stakeholders from local non-profits, government, the healthcare sector, and individuals with lived experience to discuss issues of housing, homelessness, and addiction. The top priority emerging from this summit was a public education campaign around homelessness, particularly with a focus on long-term supportive and affordable housing, and community will to say “yes, in my backyard” to these proven interventions.

The situation in Lambton mirrors broader trends across Canada, but is magnified by local service gaps. Local substance use and associated harms are higher than the Ontario average, and the opioid crisis, poisonous drug supply, and cost of living crisis have compounded to increase both the complexity and prevalence of disabling conditions for individuals experiencing homelessness.

Through the summit, it became evident that the community needed a unified, action-oriented campaign to combat growing misconceptions about homelessness, and mobilize local efforts to create housing. This was necessary not just to inform, but to encourage residents to see themselves as part of this broader issue, regardless of their housing status.

Campaign Development

The development Be Part of the Solution was inspired by a similar campaign in Huron County. Recognizing the strength of Huron’s approach, Lambton adopted the title and core concept while adapting it to meet the needs of our own community. The campaign is designed to challenge myths about homelessness, highlight ongoing local solutions, and provide residents with tangible actions to address homelessness, via accessible online resources and handouts.

A crucial part of this process was engaging with Lambton’s committee of individuals with lived experience of homelessness, as well as representatives from partner organizations in the non-profit, healthcare, justice, and social services sectors. We asked these agencies what questions they were receiving most often about homelessness, what myths they hear in their day-to-day, and what they wished the broader community understood about their core services and mandate.

The campaign team hosted a drop-in office hour and delivered presentations to cross-sectoral committees to gather input and build momentum. This collaborative process ensured that the work was grounded in local service perspectives and aligned with service delivery priorities.

These partnerships ensured Be Part of the Solution was not just a communications effort, but a collective call to action.

The Campaign: An Overview

At its core, the Be Part of the Solution seeks to educate, engage, and empower Lambton County residents to take meaningful action against homelessness. The campaign website serves as the central hub for information and resources, organized into key sections designed to inform.

1. Understanding Homelessness
   This section clarifies the causes of homelessness and the costs of it to emergency healthcare, justice, and social service systems. It dispels common myths about individuals experiencing homelessness and provides clear, factual information about homelessness in Lambton County. For example, it highlights that individuals in both urban and rural areas are affected, and how homelessness manifests in forms beyond absolute unsheltered homelessness.
   Learn more here.
   
   
2. Taking Action
   The campaign emphasizes that everyone has a role to play in addressing homelessness. By giving residents clear actions they can take, on a spectrum from small, low-barrier tasks to larger, mobilisation tasks - people can see themselves within a solutions-focused approach. There are calls to support affordable housing projects, volunteer with local agencies, or share information broadly across personal social networks. It encourages a solutions-focused mindset and highlights the importance of doing what one can. Find ways to take action.
   
   
3. Community Highlights
   This section shares stories and initiatives from across Lambton County that showcase local efforts to address homelessness. For instance, it features efforts like a local Church group’s fundraiser for Indwell supportive housing initiatives, which raised $40,000 for local housing initiatives. These examples aim to inspire residents by demonstrating the tangible impact of community-led solutions. Read and watch community highlights.
   
   
4. Lambton County’s Approach
   To keep the public informed of local service solutions, this section provides key resources such as an overview of the spectrum of homelessness services, partner programs, council reports, and examples of successful models like Indwell’s Affordable Housing initiatives. It also highlights the answers to frequently asked questions about homelessness. Service overview and FAQs.

Through these areas, the campaign offers residents access to accurate information, practical tools, and inspiring stories to engage them positively in addressing homelessness.

Application: Lessons for Other Communities

Public education campaigns like Be Part of the Solution offer valuable insights for communities seeking to address homelessness, housing challenges and their associated public concerns. By fostering shared understanding and encouraging whole-community action, campaigns like this can fundamentally shift how community members view and respond to homelessness.

1. Shaping Community Narratives

One of the campaign’s key focuses is targeting misconceptions. Misunderstandings about homelessness can lead to stigma and resistance to solutions such as community housing development. By providing factual information and frontline stories, campaigns can shift public discourse.

2. Fostering Collaborative Solutions

Buy-in for the campaign lies in a collaborative approach, involving lived experts and partners from multiple sectors. Homelessness is a complex issue that requires coordination across social services, healthcare, justice, and housing. Communities that prioritize collaboration can create more community-informed, wrap-around reports.

3. Using Online Platforms to Educate and Engage

The campaign website serves as a homebase and tool for information to reach a broad audience. By organizing information into accessible sections and including hyperlinks to resources, the website ensures residents can easily find the tools they need to learn and take action. Other communities can use similar digital platforms to centralize their messaging and their own resources.

4. Showcasing Success Stories

Highlighting local success stories can inspire hope and demonstrate the impact of both individual and collective action. For communities looking to launch their own campaigns, featuring first-person stories provides a point of connection and demonstrates that with persistent, person-centred services - change is possible.

Looking Ahead

Homelessness is a challenge that is widely affecting communities across Canada, and campaigns like Be Part of the Solution demonstrate the power of collective action in driving change. By educating the public, fostering collaboration, and empowering residents to take action, Lambton County is taking meaningful steps towards addressing homelessness from multiple levels.

For other communities, Huron, Lambton, and similar campaigns can serve as a blueprint for how to direct narratives about homelessness towards a place of understanding and solutions. With the right approach, any and every member of the community can be part of the solution.

Resources

• Video of Outreach Team

Photo Credit: County of Lambton

About the Author

Sarah Churchill is a registered social worker with a passion for evidence-based practice, whose work focuses on homelessness prevention and housing insecurity. She is a Program Supervisor within the County of Lambton’s Social Services Division, leading both Homelessness Prevention and Social Planning program areas. With experience in clinical counselling, project management, and public policy, Sarah brings expertise in data-driven decision making, report writing, and stakeholder engagement to her everyday work. She is committed to holistic, person-centred homelessness prevention programming that is designed with frontline workers, lived experts, and the broader community.