She along with its nearly 300 other members have spent countless hours elbow to elbow rolling out dough for the club’s annual cipaille supper fundraiser or washing up afterwards, or organizing any number of other fundraisers the club puts on to support the community.

The charity club’s mission is to give back to the community and support those most in need. A lot of this work involves feeding, fundraising, gathering, and donating – supporting her neighbours through material means.

But last year, over three decades into volunteering with the club, Francoeur was reminded of the power of an equally important yet often overlooked approach to supporting her neighbours – simply listening.

She and some 15 other members took part in a workshop to become part of Pontiac’s Beacon Network.

Since 2021, local social service providers have been training Pontiac residents in basic active listening skills and equipping them with knowledge about local financial, health and social support resources.

The goal of this initiative has been to create a network of people to act as a first line of support for those who might need help, confident in how to detect signs of distress and direct people to the appropriate service providers.

“It’s mainly to teach people how to be present, the signs to pick up on when someone is not feeling super well,” said Kim Laroche, responsible for delivering the trainings through her work at AutonHomme Pontiac.

“[We] give phrases to say when somebody might need help, to encourage them to talk a little more . . . How to use your body posture to show the other person you’re really present for them, that you’re taking the time for them, all about active listening. [ . . . ] Their role is how to be the eyes and ears of the community. It’s mainly to recognize all the stress signals, and hand out the resources that are available.”

Many of the people trained have regular contact with the public. Some, like Francoeur, are members of service clubs, but the group of almost 200 people trained as Beacons since 2021 includes everyone from school bus drivers,to grocery store cashiers, to members of the community who simply want to feel more empowered supporting their neighbours.

It’s a model that was first created in Lac-Mégantic, as a response to the train derailment that killed 47 people in 2013. At the time, social workers realized that in a major crisis situation, people do not necessarily seek out existing services, despite their needs. So instead, they set to work building a network of people – beacons – trained to help guide people in the community to the resources that could help them.

“There wasn’t enough mental health support for everybody around, so they had this blitz training where they helped people help others, and create resiliency,” explained CISSSO community Serena Larivière, one of the coordinators of Pontiac’s Beacon Network.

Almost a decade later, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Quebec’s Ministry of Health introduced a similar project in communities across the province in an effort to build grassroot networks of people who could help break the extreme isolation and distress. And Pontiac was one of the communities that took it on.

For the past five years, Larivière and colleague Véronique Lamoureux have been working with Laroche to spread awareness about this initiative and grow Pontiac’s network.

“So you’re not becoming a trained professional, We’re just [coaching] the Good Samaritan to be just a little bit extra prepared to help somebody in need,” Larivière explained, emphasizing that Beacons are not expected to act as social workers or mental health professionals, in fact they are discouraged from doing so.

Rather, they are simply trained to recognize distress, to feel comfortable listening, and to be able to refer neighbours to some of the region’s lesser known social services.

“So people who take the Beacon Network training become familiar with those services so when they’re making sandwiches for a church supper and they hear somebody who’s not doing that well, they can say, ‘Hey did you know we have a service right here in the Pontiac that can help you with that?’”

Now, the organizers are trying to distance the initiative from its pandemic roots.

“We tried really hard to disassociate that it was a covid program, because resiliency is never ending. If it’s a flood, if it’s a power outage for a couple of days, if it’s whatever the community can get hit with, it’s not just covid where this [network] is needed,” Larivière said.

For Francoeur, getting some basic tips for reaching out to people who don’t seem to be doing well was one of the key skills she took away from her training.

“When you don’t have the tools, you don’t even know what to say to them. So the training helped us understand how to reach out to people who need help, when we know they have problems,” she said. “It’s rare people will admit they’re not doing well when you ask how they’re doing. We also learned the importance of simply listening. Often it’s just listening that’s important, and that’s what I learned the most from this training. Because it’s not a psychologist course we took.”

Shawville resident Renald Ferland also did the training last year. He’s been a volunteer TransporAction driver for over two decades, and recently started the Shawville ViaActive exercise group.

“I was interested [in taking the training] because there’s all kinds of potential, not only in Shawville but in all the Pontiac, to help seniors, and help people,” Ferland said. “Every day, just smiling and saying hello, sometime will make the day of somebody else.”

He said since taking the training, he has found himself in two separate instances where he was able to draw upon some of the skills he learned. Once, he was helping a man who shared he was terminally ill. Another time, he helped a lost child find their mother in the Canadian Tire.

“Every day, there’s potential like this for us to help people. And if I’m doing it, I bet you most other people can do the same. Like I said, if you see potential to help people, grab it.”

Those interested in taking the Beacon Network training can call 819-648-2309 ext. 107, or send an email to info@autonhommepontiac.ca.

Filles d’Isabelle member Louise Francoeur took the training with fellow club members last year because she figured it would strengthen her ability to support members of the community the club serves.

Register or subscribe to read this content

Thanks for stopping by! This article is available to readers who have created a free account or who subscribe to The Equity.

When you register for free with your email, you get access to a limited number of stories at no cost. Subscribers enjoy unlimited access to everything we publish—and directly support quality local journalism here in the Pontiac.

Register or Subscribe Today!