Karen Henderson, Centretown News
Dick Stewart (left) and Jack McCarthy honour Philip Brown, a longtime director of the Somerset West Community Health Centre.The Somerset West Community Health Centre has recognized the former leaders who’ve guided the CHC for more than 44 years, erecting a plaque acknowledging their contributions and naming a room after a long-time board member who recently died.
“I love the symbolism,” says Joanne Jackson, spouse of late Phil Brown, former treasurer of the board of directors, whom the board room at the Eccles Street health centre has been named. “We spent a lot of time in that board room!”
The couple ran Jackson-Brown Associates Inc., a development firm for not-for-profit organizations that provides the tools and advocacy to help relocate NGOs into newer buildings.
One of the firm’s clients was the Chinatown-based Somerset West CHC, and Brown oversaw the centre’s relocation to its current location in 1993, as well as its expansion to the Rosemount branch in Hintonburg in September 2014.
Jackson says she and her husband were raised by families deeply involved in the social makeup of their communities. For Brown, whose father volunteered with Save the Children, and whose mother was stateless in Greece after the Second World War, the step to supporting non-profit groups was a short one.
“We wanted to specialize in providing services to not-for-profit organizations because they do community good,” says Jackson who now runs the firm alone after an unexpected brain hemorrhage and side effects led to Brown’s death in November.
“I’m sad that he’s no longer with us,” says Dick Stewart, current chair of the CHC’s board of directors.
Stewart, chair since June but with a long connection with the CHC, says Brown “was the guy that actually made projects work,” recalling enormous amounts of work Brown would put in to ensure a successful project.
As well as honouring Brown’s legacy, Somerset West CHC paid tribute on March 23 to a group of leaders who contributed to the centre’s growth and development. The 23 names are now displayed on a plaque placed outside of the newly named Philip Brown Boardroom.
“You can never thank people enough,” says Jack McCarthy, executive director of the centre.
Recognizing previous leadership is something McCarthy says he’s wanted to do for a while, and the meeting brought back a flood of memories about the CHC’s achievements over the years.
McCarthy says one such moment was the 2005 Chinatown fire that devastated the community when five members of a Cambodian-Canadian family died, including three children. While the memory is not a happy one, McCarthy says the event triggered a huge community support movement, much of which was organized out of the health centre.
Stewart says the meeting with 10 former chairs of the board of directors reminded him of their dedication and the superb leadership the Somerset West community has had over the past 44 years.
During the meeting, McCarthy says Peter Fan, who was chair of the board from 2008 to 2009, spoke how caring the centre is. McCarthy says he’s reminded of that theme when he thinks back to the 51 day OC Transpo strike that took place in Ottawa from December 2008 to January 2009.
“This made travel for the sick and the poor so difficult in the harsh winter,” Says McCarthy. He says during the strike the Somerset West CHC gave out 2207 taxi chits to help transport the most vulnerable to things like medical appointments. The centre also “responded to another 588 requests for transit help,” McCarthy says.
In addition to paying homage to its past, the centre is also planning for its future.
The CHC held a forum on April 7 to help develop the centre’s strategic plan, with about 30 participants—including not only community members and leaders, as well as elected officials such as Catherine McKenney—to discuss what they see happening in the community.
McCarthy, who’s retiring in July after 27 years as executive director, says there are lots of changes coming to the Somerset West community from the LeBreton Flats redevelopment to huge high-rises going up along Preston and Carling streets. What’s important for the centre’s staff, McCarthy says, is making sure “they’re the right kind of changes.”
“We have to make sure that we preserve the diversity within these neighbourhoods as best we can,” says McCarthy.
Stewart says he would like to see the CHC’s former leadership “tapped into more often” for the centre’s decisions due to the wealth of knowledge the group has.