The Village, Canadore College’s future health and wellness centre, is on track to be open by October 2018. The Village will be the only centre in Canada that puts students and seniors under the same roof. It will also double as an educational centre for students and a living facility for retirees. Students in Canadore’s School of Health, Human Care and Wellness and First Peoples’ Centre programs will be able to work with the residents.
The Village will also be home to a traditional Indigenous healing lodge and custom-built classrooms. The facility’s student-run health clinics will be open to the public. The project costs $20-million, with $15 million coming from the federal and provincial government. Organizers still need to raise $5 million locally, and the fundraising team says it’s already secured about half of that from private donors.
Fundraising Co-Chair Judy Sharpe says the project is important to a lot of people in the community, and the work being done will put Canadore on the map. Sharpe says they will have all ages of people using the facilities here, creating conversations between the young and old. She says residents will be provided with an opportunity to access health care services, and that’s the key in her mind. Sharpe says the time has come, the vision is here, the community has mobilized and embraced the vision and it’s time to move this work forward now.
