www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, November 24, 2016 | 36 Lighthouse permanent building is a legacy to Oakville continued from p.29 room (with equipment from the legacy Oakville hospital), arts and crafts and a volcano room to express the physicality of their grief. Each room provides children a place to play, process thoughts or to just be with others going through grief. Martini-Miles noted it will now offer two support groups for parents of teenagers and children, almost simultaneously, which allows for families with both to come once a week, instead of multiple visits. "It will make it a lot easier for our families, who are already super-stretched, and will also allow our staff team to increase the capacity. We can double the number of families we support ON NOW AT THE BRICK! SAVING YOU MORE For more details go instore or online @thebrick.com. by just having several groups run alongside each other," said Martini-Miles. "We didn't want to overwhelm our families with the sheer numbers of people that are attending." The new Rebecca Street home was designed "very cleverly" to accommodate several groups that may overlap, the Lighthouse executive director said. Groups' schedules can be divided to double its capacity. In 2015, it helped more than 250 children, and teenagers, and adults on a weekly basis. "That's an enormous amount for that tiny little house (on Wilson Street). We're forecasting we can up to double that number. It won't happen overnight, but now, with a new house, we don't have a waiting list, which is wonderful," said Martini-Miles. "We don't have to turn people away, we now have capacity to grow again. We have volunteers ready and waiting for new groups to open. We're ready to go." Additional growth is expected to come from Lighthouse's grief training and resource centre, which will be used to reach out to new communities and schools, Martini-Miles said. "Often times, guidance counsellors are not briefed on matters related to grief, certainly not in a way we are. We deal with it every day. We can help them with language, we can help them with strategies and self-support for their schools," said Martini-Miles. "It doesn't necessarily mean we will have them come to our groups, but we can equip them with tools based on the 17-year experience of working with children and teens." She said the centre will also be of assistance to companies and human resource representatives, and those looking to start their own peer support group. "We can share with them how to be a board, how to build a fundraising plan, how to build a volunteer training program, how to deliver the services and to make sure safety and other procedures are in place," said Martini-Miles. "This can become an incredible ripple effect from here in Oakville right across Canada." Without the Legacy campaign, there would be no new home, Martini-Miles stated, as the community support was crucial for finding a permanent residence. "It gives us everything we could possibly need to work with our children and families," said Martini-Miles, noting it will host several open houses in early 2017. "This is a permanent feature in our community. We will not go away. We will be here to support generations of families and that is the legacy we leave." Lighthouse recently received accreditation from Imagine Canada for its high standards in board governance, financial accountability and transparency, fundraising, staff management and volunteer involvement. For more information, visit www. grievingchildrenlighthouse.org or email info@ grievingchildrenlighthouse.org Earn up to $3500! are you a Healthy Male or Female between 18 and 55 years of age? If so we want to hear from you! Apotex is currently recruiting healthy men and women to participate in studies on pharmaceutical products. R U S K® · You wIll bE paId upon completion of the study · Compensation may range from $1000 to $3500 depending on the length of the study CONAIR AY PARKW 27 7 50 NEW BLVD. ZENWAY NTI ON NGT 427 FOGAL R OAD .7 HWY 7 427 27 QUEE N ST.E 50 N VAUGHAN . VALLEY BLVD RegisteR online at www.apotex.ca or call: 416-741-4256 toll Free: 1-877-apo-clnc (1-877-276-2562) Hours: 8:30am to 5pm Monday to Friday LANGSTAFF RD. NEW HU NT ING N TO . RD HU . RD ENTE RPRISE WAY HUNT . ON RD INGT