After 2 years, Makwa Patrol remains on patrol, keeping the most vulnerable in Kenora safe

The Makwa Patrol in Kenora, Ont., is celebrating its second anniversary. Kicking off the festivities with a barbecue and community gathering at the city's Anicinabe Park. 

Marshall Hardy, the manager of the patrol, says the grassroots group of community members strive to make Kenora a safer community by filling in gaps in service, and by responding to calls to support the vulnerable population. 

The group patrols by vehicle and by foot aiming to build relationships with people experiencing homelessness.

Makwa Patrol works with community partners and organizations. They are often sharing food, water, snacks, and kindness. Something most vulnerable, marginalized groups don't often get, Hardy said. 

Hardy previously worked with the OPP where they, the OPP and Kenora Chiefs Advisory initiated and developed a Mobile Youth Crisis. It was a program to assist youth between the ages of 12 to 24 years old experiencing mental health issues.

That relationship has carried over into his new role as manager of Makwa Patrol. He says he gets a few calls from the OPP to lend a hand or send the van over. 

"Makwa Patrol aren't first responders, but they do come across intoxicated people and we become first responders at that time because we end up doing an assessment. We do end up calling the police or ambulance for stuff like that," he said.

The strain on ambulance and police since COVID-19 pandemic has been evident in wait times and response time in Kenora, he said. 

Housing is another issue exasperated by the pandemic. All Nations Health Partners, a group of like-minded community partners, including the Kenora Association for Community Living, came up with a response to this one issue. They took on the Kenora Waterview Housing Project and now house 20 occupants in their 16 units.

Cathy Bowmen, the program's manager says they support the individuals who live in their unit and credits Makwa Patrol for the success of the housing unit. 

Kenora Waterview Housing Project is nearly two kilometres away from the downtown centre, so the Makwa Patrol's work helping transport people makes a difference, especially for people with mobility, elders or people with addictions issues. 

"I think Makwa plays a really vital role within the community, they provide transportation to and from multiple locations, for multiple people, not just the people at Waterview" says Bowmen.

"We've had one joint staff meeting and we plan to have another because both Marshall and I feel it's very important to have the staff come together and continue to talk about the issues that arise and brainstorm productive ways to offer services to the occupants in the future" 

Makwa Patrol relies on its continued partnerships to help strengthen the overall health of the community. In good times as well as bad. But Marshall says it's the good times that he's really proud of.