Lakeside Terrace Supportive Living Residence
36 Rosemount Avenue L3K 5P7 Port Colborne, ON, Canada

This year, Christmas will not be the same. The COVID-19 pandemic presents many challenges on how we celebrate the holidays. The new normal. These are all fa...ctors that have now become a staple part of our lives: Wearing masks, testing, lockdowns, no visitation, social distancing and isolation. Being alone, during the best of times, is a very hard reality to accept -- especially for our vulnerable population--who will have to resort to spending the festive season without family. This can trigger heavy emotions and vulnerability. According to an article in Yahoo Life, The coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated that vulnerability. In a year of grief and immeasurable loss, it’s natural for people many of whom may not have seen their loved ones since the holidays last year to have negative feelings about how a holiday season amid the new normal will play out. Now that Ontario-wide lockdowns have been announced to take effect as of Christmas Eve, we deal with our residents experiencing their first Christmas without family support. This is where SupportiveLiving endeavours to recreate and inject the Christmas spirit into our residences. In the past few weeks, our community churches, restaurants and individual donations have brought cheer and hope to hundreds of our residents, across all of our homes, as they deal with the prospect of not being at home with their families. As part of our festivities, SL CEO and Founder, Vishal Chityal, will contribute Christmas dinner and all residents will receive a gift so that they may feel at home and bond with each other in a socially responsible way. Residents will also take part in various activities and decorating their home to give them a sense of purpose and belonging where they reside. Nine months into the pandemic, we are very proud of how our frontline workers and community has come together to support our residents. On behalf of SupportiveLiving.ca Management and Vishal Chityal, we wish everyone Happy Holidays and may you all stay healthy and safe. Be well and stay well! #supportivehousing #mentalhealth #christmas2020 #COVID19

SupportiveLiving partnered with UniMed Dispensaries to deliver Christmas packages to all the residents at New Beginnings Residence in St.Thomas. The packages c...onsisted of a pair of pajama pants, socks, mitts and chocolates. This annual tradition is funded by SL CEO and Founder, Vishal Chityal, who not only provides Christmas gifts to hundreds of his own residents but to other homes who share the same passion of providing housing for our vulnerable population. On behalf of SupportiveLiving and UniMed Dispensaries we wish all the management, staff and residents of New Beginnings a very Merry Christmas! Be well and stay well! #donations #christmasgifts #mentalhealth #supportivehousing #helpingthecommunity

There are special members in our community who are selfless and compassionate, and continue to remember our residents, especially during challenging times of CO...VID-19. Jetta Witlib from the Welland Hospital teams up every year with Liliana Borelli at Welland Banquet Hall Casa Dante, to deliver Christmas lunch to over 45 residents across various group homes in the Niagara Region. They dropped off lunch and dessert at Beatrice Manor in Welland for our residents who were overwhelmed with their thoughtful donation and enjoyed the delicious food. With Christmas happening during lockdown this year, we rely on our community partners to help us spread cheer within our homes while our residents struggle to get through the holidays without their families. On behalf of everyone at SupportiveLiving and Beatrice Manor, we thank you, Jetta and Liliana, for making this a memorable Christmas and for your ongoing generosity and support! #Donations #casadante #wellandhospital #kindness

Human Rights Day is celebrated annually across the world on 10 December every year. The day is normally marked both by high-level political conferences and meet...ings and by cultural events and exhibitions dealing with human rights issues. This year’s theme revolves around the COVID-19 pandemic Recover Better Stand up for Human Rights to create equal opportunities and address the failures exposed by COVID by ensuring that human rights are central for recovery. At SupportiveLiving.ca our mission is to ensure #housingforall by providing stable and affordable housing, especially for our marginalized populations. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3gzRDs3 #HumanRightsDay #humanrights #supportivehousing #HousingFirst

Celebrating 15 Years in the Housing Industry! SupportiveLiving.ca is celebrating! The past fifteen years gives us a lot to reflect upon. SL President and Founde...r Vishal Chityal was told by many in the industry that his model of housing would not work as long term housing for individuals with mental health vulnerabilities. 15 years later, after successfully starting up and acquiring many homes, SL now houses hundreds of residents across Ontario. Previously known as Niagara Supportive Living, the company was rebranded in 2014 to SupportiveLiving.ca to reflect its expansion outside of the Niagara region, as a result of communities and agencies requesting homes to be established in their community. With the alarming increase of homelessness and a looming housing crisis all across Ontario, it all came down to a situation of supply and demand and when the demand is high, SL listens! The subject of appropriate and affordable housing has always been a complex issue. Over the years, we have seen many challenges such as gaps in the system and a general lack of funding. Despite the challenges, we have continued to plough through these obstacles to house our core resident demographic and provide the basic necessity of life - shelter. #housingisahumanright SupportiveLiving.ca would like to thank all our frontline workers, supervisors and our Award-Winning Management team for their hard work. SL also thanks our community partners who refer their clients to our homes. Most of all, we thank our residents, who are the backbone of our homes and our top priority as we continue to ensure their long term housing. Here is to the next fifteen years! #celebration #mentalhealth #housing #supportiveliving Be well and stay well!

Every year, as we enter the Christmas season, we open our arms to our community partners to help us spread Christmas cheer for our residents. This year, the Of...fice of Vance Badawey, Member of Parliament of Niagara Centre, reached out to do exactly that with Vance himself dropping off poinsettias to our Niagara homes in Port Colborne and Welland. The residents at Lakeside Terrace, Humberstone Manor and Beatrice Manor were happy to receive these colourful poinsettias, bringing colour and Christmas spirit into our homes. Vance was very appreciative of SupportiveLiving.ca’s commitment to providing stable and affordable congregate housing to the Niagara Region, especially for our vulnerable population. We thank Vance and his team for his generous donation and continued support in the community! #community #HousingForAll #SupportSmallBusiness #liberal

At the beginning of October, we kicked off our Be Well and Stay Well Program. SupportiveLiving.ca CEO and President Vishal Chityal donated t-shirts and persona...l wellness kits to all our frontline workers and hundreds of residents across each of our homes in the Niagara and West regions. Our staff and residents were treated to a small launch party celebrating their wellness and were surprised with a cake and their gifts. Dustin B commented, Thank you for the party. I needed a new t-shirt, so this is great! During these trying times where COVID-19 protocols have been in place since the beginning of the pandemic, our residents have demonstrated patience and resilience and continue to stay well. SupportiveLiving would like to thank Heather Grundy, Chair of Community Ministries at Central United Church in Welland, ON for their generous donation towards our wellness campaign and by remembering our residents at Beatrice Manor. The support and kindness of our community partners help our residents feel that they are connected to the community despite having to isolate due to COVID. We would like to thank everyone -- from PSWs, doctors and nurses to mental health support workers and families for supporting our frontline staff and residents. May we all continue to Be Well and Stay Well! #mentalhealth #connected #community #COVID19

It has been reported that one in four Canadians say that their current state of mental health is worse than during the initial phases of the COVID-19 outbreak. ...We must ask the inevitable question: How do we cope and stay resilient during the next 6 months? This is especially a concern for the vulnerable population who were experiencing negative mental health outcomes even before the coronavirus outbreak. Read our full blog entitled, "Resilience during COVID-19" https://bit.ly/34yHA1P #mentalhealth #housing #connected #collaboration #community #COVID19

October 10 is World Mental Health Day This day is even more meaningful as we observe a day where COVID-19 has made an impact to everyone’s mental health on a gl...obal level. Governments around the world will be looking to make substantial investments towards mental health programs to help those facing the challenges of isolation, social distancing and economic hardships. This day provides an opportunity for all individuals working on mental health issues to talk about their work and what needs to be done to support those in need of mental health care. Although COVID has presented many challenges to the mental health of everyone in our homes, we have found ways to continue support and services. For our residents, it all begins with providing stable housing and working with our mental health community partners to conduct virtual services and enforced onsite care with essential workers such as PSWs, medical staff and emergency responders. Together as a community, we continue to ensure the safety and well-being of our frontline workers and residents. Be well and stay well! #WorldMentalHealthDay #HousingFirst #housing #mentalhealth

October 4-10 is Mental Illness Awareness Week Faces of Mental Illness is an annual public education campaign which is intended to help bring awareness to the re...ality of mental illness. SL’s top priority is to balance out mental health by providing stable housing and assist in daily living by providing support and services. We are dedicated to our vulnerable population who can better cope with mental illness by working with our community partners. Hand in hand, we continue to build strong communities by housing individuals who are given access to a solid network, benefiting their overall mental health. Learn more about who we are and what we do. https://bit.ly/3irFuog #housingforall #MentalIllnessAwarenessWeek #mentalhealth

SupportiveLiving.ca Announces Wellness Campaign: Be Well, Stay Well! Since the beginning of March when the Coronavirus pandemic started, SL management and front...line staff have worked tirelessly to keep COVID-19 out of our residences. Although the past several months have been challenging, keeping our congregate care settings safe and our residents COVID-free has been top priority. We are relieved and happy to say that so far our efforts are paying off in this fight with our residents, frontline workers and homes maintaining a COVID-free status. In the month of October, we are celebrating this milestone with our latest wellness campaign, Be Well, Stay Well! The message of this campaign is simple: SupportiveLiving.ca residents are well and continue to stay well because of housing which promotes a stabilized state of mental health -- helping to sustain a full, balanced and enriched life. As part of our campaign, some of the highlights are: All staff and residents will receive T-shirts to celebrate wellness All residents will receive a care package that promotes health and self-care All homes will have a socially distanced party to celebrate working and living in a COVID-free environment We hope the campaign will spread cheer to everyone, and help support the well-being of our staff and residents within our homes. In a time where everyone’s focus seems to be on the negative aspects of COVID, SupportiveLiving.ca aims to balance out the negativity and promote sound mental health. We are grateful that we can help the vulnerable population across communities in Ontario stay positive and we hope that everyone continues to Be Well and Stay Well throughout the coming months by promoting wellness during these unprecedented times. Be Well and Stay Well SL Management and Staff SupportiveLiving.ca