Study to look at Livingston Centre expansion feasibility

Jeff Helsdon, Editor

A study is examining the possibility of expanding Tillsonburg’s Livingston Centre.

Located at 96 Tillson Ave, the facility is home to the Tillsonburg Multi-Service Centre and Community Living Tillsonburg, which co-own and manage the facility. It is also home to Service Canada, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Oxford, Canadian Mental Health Association, Stonebridge Community Services, the Tillsonburg Children Centre daycare, and other services.

When the Livingston Centre opened in 1998, it was attached to former Tillson Ave Public School. It was a hub for the people of Tillsonburg, Oxford, Norfolk and Elgin for a wide variety of services. Structural issues in the former school building forced a renovation, and this portion of the centre was removed in 2015.

“The last five to six years, the Livingston Centre is bursting at the seams,” said Cheryl Conick, co-executive director of Livingston Centre.

The board of directors of the Tillsonburg Community Services Initiative (TCSI), the non-profit that owns the building and is owned by Community Living Tillsonburg and the Tillsonburg Multi-Service Centre, saw the way forward was a feasibility study to look at the possibility of expansion.

The $43,000 study is paid 50/50 by the province, through a Rural Ontario Development grant, and TCSI.

“Is that need out there within the community? Is it financially sustainable?” Conick said of the study’s purpose.

The study started in April, and will have a recommendation by October. Conick said the first step of the study is to assess business capacity, and then a search will begin to see if funding is available.

Consultant David Howse from Alberta was chosen to lead the study from a field of three choices. Conick said he was chosen due to a tremendous amount of experience in the non-profit sector.

“After meeting with all three, he was the one most experienced,” said Jen Olcsvary, fundraising and community engagement coordinator for the Multi-Service Centre.

Howse is looking at what the community needs are through stakeholder meetings, asking if possible tenants are willing to pay rent, and also talking to construction companies to get an idea of cost. As part of the process, Howse is asking tenants about their needs today, and in five years.

The municipal government and local businesses were surveyed for the need for training spaces. Local colleges, Oxford County human and paramedic services, VON, the Oxford Health Team, Salvation Army, youth probation, Thames Valley Addiction and Mental Health Services, and ODSP were also contacted.

“The people we reached out to are people who will be a good fit and a need for our local community,” Conick said, adding the concept is to add to the one-stop access point concept.

The broad concept being looked at is adding 17,000 square feet. The centre is now 22,000 square feet. Additional office spaces, meeting rooms, classrooms and training laboratories would be potential uses.

“This is an important step to bring the Livingston Centre back to what it once was,” Olcsvary said.

Asked about the feedback to date, Conick answered, “We aren’t sure an expansion is feasible. Will it provide the revenue we need to maintain it, will it be occupied, and is there enough desire in the community from stakeholders? As a non-profit, we need to ensure its feasibility.”

Community members or groups who wish to provide input can contact Conick at ceo@communitylivingtillsonburg.ca, or Multi-Service Centre CEO Kathryn Leatherland at kleatherland@multiservicecentre.com.