A Community Response to Hoarding The 3rd Annual Conference of the Sarnia Lambton Home Re- sponse Collaborative was held on May 11, 2016 in Sarnia, Ontario. Eighty-five people attended, including service providers from Lambton, Middlesex, Kent, Huron and Essex Counties. The confer- ence theme was “A Community Response to Hoarding”. Speakers included service providers from Sarnia Fire, Sarnia Humane Socie- ty, the law firm of Cohen Highly, and London’s Extreme Clean Pro- gram. Keynote speaker Judy Batalion, the author of White Walls, hared her persona experi- ences as the child of a hoarder including how this affected her childhood, education and parenting style. Conference attendees received a copy of her book. Judy Batalion Keynote Speaker Judy Batalion was born in Montreal, studied at Harvard and worked as an art historian and comedian in London be- fore settling in New York City. Judy’s first book, WHITE WALLS: A MEMOIR OF MOTHERHOOD, DAUGH- TERHOOD, AND THE MESS IN BETWEEN was published in 2016. Sarnia Lambton Home Response Collaborave Report on the 2016 Conference - May 2016
Transcript
A Community Response to Hoarding
The 3rd Annual Conference of the Sarnia Lambton Home Re-sponse Collaborative was held on May 11, 2016 in Sarnia, Ontario. Eighty-five people attended, including service providers from Lambton, Middlesex, Kent, Huron and Essex Counties. The confer-ence theme was “A Community Response to Hoarding”. Speakers included service providers from Sarnia Fire, Sarnia Humane Socie-ty, the law firm of Cohen Highly, and London’s Extreme Clean Pro-
gram.
Keynote speaker Judy Batalion, the author of White Walls, hared her persona experi-ences as the child of a hoarder including how this affected her childhood, education and parenting style. Conference attendees received a copy of her book.
Judy Batalion
Keynote Speaker
Judy Batalion was born in Montreal, studied at Harvard and worked as an art historian and comedian in London be-fore settling in New York City.
Judy’s first book, WHITE WALLS: A MEMOIR OF MOTHERHOOD, DAUGH-TERHOOD, AND THE MESS IN BETWEEN was published in 2016.
Sarnia Lambton Home Response Collaborative Report on the 2016 Conference - May 2016
Who Attended
There were 74 people in attendance and 87% completed the survey.
Feedback “Excellent conference; greatly appreciate hearing the different perspective of individuals in-
volved in this work”
“Fantastic speakers. Loved Judy's book and talk! Best speaker yet!”
“Perspective from adult child who grew up in hoarded environment was extremely valuable.
Ripple effect, and lasting impact on development, self-identity, etc. Great job!”
“The afternoon was beyond amazing. Judy was a wealth of information and was so valuable.
Thank you.”
“All speakers provided very useful and practical information. Learning environment was ex-cellent as was all food and beverage. Thank you to the HRC for arranging! also thank you for
providing a copy of Judy's Book!!”
“Great day, great venue. Thank you.”
Rob Gifford Speaking on Fire Safety Greetings from
Warden Bev MacDougall
Rebecca Bauer
Extreme Clean Presentation
Conference Outcomes
94%
86%
100%
98%
Increased their knowledge of the Landlord Tenant Rights and Responsibilities.
Had the opportunity to net-work with people from oth-er agencies.
Indicated that it would be beneficial to develop a lo-cal toolkit for the commu-nity to deal with issues of hoarding.
Increased their insight into how hoarding af-fects families.
92%
94%
98%
98%
90%
Increased their knowledge
of the duty for landlords to
accommodate persons with
mental illness.
Increased their knowledge of the au-
thority the fire department has to act
in cases of hoarding.
Increased knowledge of the Ex-
treme Clean program.
Learned something that will help
them in their daily work
Increased their knowledge of animal
hoarding and removal.
Kristin Ley discussed Landlord-Tenant
Rights and Responsibilities
Nicole King and Becky Knight provided an
overview of Animal Hoarding
Judy Batalion signing her book
‘White Walls’
The desired outcomes to increase knowledge were achieved. The feedback also illustrates that the conference had a broader impact on Sarnia-Lambton community, neighbouring Counties and communities across southwestern Ontario by increasing the awareness of the issues of fire, clean-up, animal hoarding, legal rights and responsibilities and how hoarding affects family members.
Summary
County of Lambton
Social Planning and Children’s Services Department Lambton Shared Services Centre 150 Christina Street North Sarnia, Ontario N7T 8H3
Written by:
Lorri Kerrigan, Social Planner, Social Planning and Children’s Services, County of Lambton
Contributors:
Tracy King, Community Support Worker, Housing Services Department, County of Lambton
Sarnia Lambton Home Response Collaborative Conference Planning Committee
This outcomes report was made possible through the generous support of the County of Lambton’s
Social Planning Department.
Special thanks to: Lorri Kerrigan, Social Planner, for sharing her expertise and creating this report.
Sarnia Lambton Home Response Collaborative Steering Committee: Rob Gifford, Lorri Kerrigan, Tracy King, Becky Knight, Susan Wood,
Kelly Bedard, Judy Batalion (Speaker), Nicole King, Sandra Fraser, Mike Otis, Tina Buono,
