Mission Statement: “Helping individuals move forward”
Vision Statement: “We are a leader in quality and innovation; a vital part of the community”
An Historical Overview of the Employment Help Centre
The St. Catharines Unemployed Help Centre first opened its doors in 1983 at the Grantham Township Building, downtown. The early eighties was a period of particularly heavy unemployment, caused by a nation-wide economic downturn. There were significant job losses in all sectors, with manufacturing being especially hard hit. Unemployment rates reached the double digits as thousands became victims of plant closures and mass lay offs.
In an attempt to support the area’s displaced workers, the St. Catharines and District Labour Council, the City of St. Catharines and the United Way sponsored the founding of the Help Centre. Their original goal was to advocate for rights for the unemployed; soon, in addition to advocacy, the Centre was providing employment counselling services.
The Employment Help Centre is one of approximately twenty Help Centres in Ontario, and receives its main funding from the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.
In the first 10 years the Centre moved from the Grantham Township building to an office on Berryman and in 1987 to the corner of Queenston Street and Oakdale, where the services still exists today.
It is the leaders of this organization and the dedicated staff that over more than two decades have made it a welcoming place for job seekers.
Client service has always been at the heart of the Employment Help Centre. Services are primarily delivered one-to-one, so that job seekers get individual attention, the right mix of services to move them as quickly as possible toward employment, and the follow-up and support to ensure success. Programs come and go, and the Centre has grown from a small, grass-roots store-front operation to a complex network of programs with multiple offices, but high-quality client service, delivered with courtesy and respect, remains constant.
A New Era
In 1993 Rudi Masswohl was hired as the Executive Director. He brought a new life to the organization and over the 11 years that he was Executive Director the agency saw growth and expansion.
Programs delivered out of the St. Catharines office include the Job Connect program which is funded by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU). EHC’s version of Job Connect offers a broad spectrum of services to adult job seekers, including information and resources offered in a staffed and supported resource centre and individual employment counselling and job development services. Job Connect also supports services to employers, including financial incentives to hire and train new employees. EHC staff constantly work to expand the Centre’s employer base, in the search for win-win matches between job seekers and employers.
One of the longest-running programs at the Centre is the Farm Labour Pool Niagara, which began in 1996 and was funded by Service Canada. Over the years, thousands of people have been placed in jobs of varying duration in jobs in agriculture and horticulture. In 2005, dedicated funds for this project ceased, owing to policy changes with respect to Service Canada project funding. The EHC, committed to maintaining these services to the unemployed and to the horticultural and agricultural sectors, continues to offer most of the services of the Farm Labour Pool with funding through United Way.
In 1999, the EHC began delivery of services in Welland, with a briefcase, a cellphone, and a seat in a coffee shop. To reflect the special needs of the unemployed in Welland, programs have been focused on bilingual services through Réseau Emploi, and the experienced, mature worker through Operation 40+ (both funded by Service Canada/MTCU). The Welland office has also delivered numerous highly successful training programs in partnership with College Boreal, ABC Communautaire, Father Fogarty Adult Education Centre, Credit Counselling of Niagara, Social Assistance and Employment Opportunities, the Niagara Women’s Enterprise Centre, and Niagara College.
Today, the office is located in a new and very attractive street-front location at 53 Main Street East, in Welland’s downtown core, and houses EHC staff, plus Credit Counselling of Niagara and REAL Work.
The Employment Help Centre expanded services into West Niagara with the opening of the Grimsby Resource Centre in 2000, which is also funded by Service Canada/MTCU. There is a surprisingly large demand for employment and support services in Grimsby. Our current partnerships with Job Gym, Region of Niagara, Credit Counselling, Women’s Resource Centre and YWCA, enable us offer extended services.
St. Catharines is also the centre of our Newcomer Services division. The Niagara Region is now home to people from all corners of the world: sadly, many arrive here after leaving their homes to escape war, the brutality of totalitarian regimes, and civil unrest. Regardless of circumstance, all newcomers need help to understand Canadian workplace culture, Canadian job search techniques, occupation-specific terminology, and how to navigate the vast bureaucracies of income support, immigration, professional licensing and accreditation.
CAIPS (Canadian Access for International Professionals and Skilled Trades), was delivered in partnership with the Welland Multicultural Centre from 2002 to 2006 under funding by Service Canada. Through this project, participants were provided with counselling and job placement, mentorship’s, and group counselling support.
Over the years, the Centre has been at the vanguard of innovative programs and services for newcomers. AIPSO, the Association of International Physicians and Surgeons, was founded with the support of the Welland Multicultural Centre and the EHC; in 2004, a project was delivered in partnership with Brock University to train newcomers to Canada as academic research assistants. The latter project was the subject of an academic paper presented to an international audience at the 2005 Brock University Multicultural Days conference.
In 2004, the Employment Help Centre assumed sponsorship of the federally-funded Smithville Resource Centre. This site is becoming increasingly busy as the population of West Lincoln grows and the needs of its citizens become more complex.
That same year Rudi Masswohl retired after 11 years of service and Lynn Stewart was hired to fill his “big shoes”.
The Bridge Project started in 2005, a project focused on newcomers with occupational backgrounds in health care, finance, engineering and education. The intent of the project is to place participants in employment opportunities in their fields of expertise, or in jobs consistent with their levels of education and experience. In 2006, the EHC received funds to continue this project in St. Catharines, and to expand Bridge project services to Welland. In 2007 the funding ceased but the Centre continued to serve the newcomers with the support of many partners, including member agencies of the Niagara Newcomers Service Alliance and the Niagara Newcomer Employment Strategy Advisory Group.
The growing numbers of newcomers seeking assistance at the Centre, and the increasing number of projects dedicated to helping newcomers, meant that yet again, the St. Catharines office would need to expand, meaning more renovations, more upheavals, and more dust. It was worth it: we now have a spacious area dedicated to newcomer services, along with a boardroom and a new computer lab.
An Ontario Trillium Foundation grant awarded in 2005 provided funds for technological upgrades and new equipment purchases to provide enhanced services to EHC. The new technology has resulted in better work flow, better communication among staff, and enabled the development of a new web site.
With the signing of the Labour Market Agreement by the Provincial and Federal government in 2005 came a new era that encouraged the cooperative and coordinated delivery of provincial employment and training services. The EHC was already well-positioned in this regard, given its network of partnerships with other service providers, but the best example of coordinated service delivery comes from our co-location with Niagara College’s Job Connect staff in mid 2006. With this partnership we are now able to deliver services to clients of all ages; a full range of programs and services offered by both the EHC and Niagara College. Since then we have also created formal partnerships with Real Work, Niagara Women’s Enterprise, and the YMCA in our St. Catharines office.
The Newest Era
In May 2007 following a year of program and staff loss due to funding cuts, Stan Drobnich was appointed as Executive Director. He had the daunting task of having to restore the agency to its former glory.
In August 2007 the Centre was awarded a collaborative Trillium Grant of $39,000 in partnership with Niagara College Job Connect and the YMCA Employment Program for the purchase of 30 new computers for the Resource areas.
April 2008 saw the launch of our new website and a client server thanks to funding from MTCU.
In May of 2008 the Employment Help Centre received $380, 000 for two years of funding for the Bridging Program from the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration (MCI). So, once again we are recognized for our exemplary work with the Internationally Trained Professionals.
MCI Minister Michael Chan with Stan Drobnich EHC Executive Director
The Employment Help Centre is now celebrating its 25th year in service and with the long history of successes and recent successes; we hope to see many more years of excellent service for the communities we serve.
Happy 25th Anniversary EHC!
