A long-term accommodation centre for young adults between 18 and 25 years old living in vulnerable circumstances hopes to finally establish itself in Bedford in the near future. 

Éric Crosier and Julie Landry, both of whom have extensive careers in social services, have been working on L’Oasis de l’Espoir for about a year after recognizing a need for such an establishment. To make the project happen, the co-founders needed to find a space that could serve as an accommodation centre. 

They have officially launched a fundraising campaign to purchase the former Résidence St-Joseph building located just across the street from the CLSC de Bedford. The fundraising goal is $300,000 and they are looking for community support, in more ways than one, to bring L’Oasis de l’Espoir to life. 

“I worked in prevention for many years and then I went to the opposite side. I work in a rehab centre where it’s mostly people that were sentenced to jail time and they had a lot of hiccups in their life. (…) I want to come back to the prevention part,” explained Crosier. “That’s why we want to make this resource available to young adults, mostly those that come from the youth centres or foster homes. (…) They are going to be able to become contributing citizens to society instead of depending on it.”

Crosier continued to explain that L’Oasis de l’Espoir is all about preventing those “hiccups” before they happen. 

“The stats say that when you’re about 18-19 and you’ve been in youth protection or foster homes for many years, in the first year 60 per cent of them will basically have to struggle. That’s six young men or women out of ten that are going to have criminal records because they have to survive,” he noted. “(…) I think the need is really there and what is good about this one is that we will be able to provide the services in French and in English.”

Landry worked at Résidence St-Joseph before the owner decided to close it down.  

“It was made to provide services to a clientele, we’re just going to change the vocation. For about 20 years, the resource that was there was for heavy cases of mental health. (…) Since Julie was there for many years and she worked with some of the clients for many years, she wanted to save them in the sense of not being put in resources that, unfortunately, weren’t adapted to their needs. The project kind of started there,” mentioned Crosier.

If Crosier and Landry are able to raise the necessary funds to purchase the building, the accommodation centre will be able to serve eight young adults. 

“They’re going to be able to stay there for a year or two, it’s not just a short-term thing. It’s going to be for at least one or two years depending on where you’re at and where you’ll need to be,” noted Crosier. 

Crosier said that residents at L’Oasis de l’Espoir will be encouraged to either take part in a variety of workshops, these workshops can include anything from building self-esteem to prevention on substances, pursue an education, or find employment. 

“We already made contact with most of the businesses around to see if they were open to have a formation or hire the clientele that’s going to be residing at L’Oasis de l’Espoir. That’s one of the things we’re going to be working on is going on the market to work, start earning money, and get the routine in because that’s what will be needed once you get your own apartment. The businesses are all into this project,” he highlighted.

Crosier added that L’Oasis de l’Espoir wants to give young adults the tools they need to become a responsible citizen and “an active member of the community.” 

Those staying at L’Oasis de l’Espoir will also be provided with the health and social services that they need. 

“The counsellors that would be there would be able to provide some of the services, but for sure we will be in connection with the CIUSSS de l'Estrie, we will be in connection with the doctors in Bedford, and all other resources that they will be needing,” said Crosier. “Either they will have outside resources go there to talk to them and provide the services that they need or the residents will be able to go to their appointments.”

Crosier and Landry have launched a fundraising campaign on platform YAPLA in order to purchase the former Résidence St-Joseph, but Crosier had some good news to share with CIDI. 

“I have an appointment at the building because we might have someone who is in the community that would purchase this for us. Afterwards we can make a ten year lease with Option d’Achat to to acquire the building. Then we could start getting all the funds that will be needed to hire the people and finally open the facility and provide the services,” he mentioned. 

L’Oasis de l’Espoir held an annual general assembly a couple of weeks ago where it chose its board members and they are currently waiting on their charity number from Revenue Canada. 

“It takes a bit of time, but we already have the authorization to be able to fundraise money any way we can. We will be able to give some receipts for the people that donate to the resource so they can put that on their income taxes,” explained Crosier. “If this goes through (the purchasing deal) then the fundraising will be changed in the sense that instead of purchasing the building, then it will maybe it will be for the first four or five months until everything is working, all the funds are in, and the budget is set for the next year. (…) I have to see all of the logistics around the proposition, but if we could put our hand on that it will be easier.”

More information on L’Oasis de l’Espoir and the link to fundraising campaign can be found here. 

Listen to the full interview below: