Mayflower Place – open for business and promoting abilities

BY CARLA ALLEN

The Coast Guard

NovaNewsNow.com

They’ve been open and loving their new location since April 1 but last Wednesday the folks at Mayflower Place in Barrington Passage wanted to invite the community to an official Open House event.

Operated by the Shelburne Association Supporting Inclusion the renovated building, which was formerly known as the old Oddfellow’s Hall, contains a bakery, meeting hall, Laundromat, meeting room available for public rental, classroom and gift/retail section. Close to 30 clients with physical and mental challenges work in the different areas.

Executive director Joanne Bangay says they like to refer to their organization by its acronym – SASI.

“We support people to be sassy and to speak for themselves, not just to fade away quietly into the background,” she said.

The new location is much larger than their former ‘Seaspray’ facility. In the bakery, clients are already lining up regular customers for their different breads, cookies, cinnamon buns and customized service. Catering services are also provided.

“The sky’s the limit if people have special requests,” said Bangay. “They can just call and preorder: 637-2197.”

Meals on Wheels service is provided to close to 15 residents in Barrington and Cape Sable Island. The Laundromat is receiving lots of use and a gift/retail shop is stocked with items made from clients at Mayflower and other similar facilities in the province.

Mayflower also has a contract with the Municipality of Barrington to clean the library.

“We’re looking to expand on that program. We want to create more awareness in the community that the gang that work here are very capable, skilled people and have a lot to contribute,” said Bangay.

Because of the larger area, nine more clients have been added.

The organization has also added more students with disabilities (four students in Barrington, four in Shelburne and two in Lockeport) as part of their summer grant program, which is funded through Service Canada.

Other summer staff has been hired as well through Nova Scotia Economic Development.

“The students with disabilities are sometimes very limited in what they have for summer jobs. Part of our philosophy is to promote abilities and we thought one of the best ways to do that is through high school students with disabilities having a place to come to work for the summer, to be paid minimum wage the same as any other member of the community,” said Bangay.

Close to 70 individuals in total are supported in the vocational program in Barrington, Shelburne and Lockeport. SASI also operates residential facilities as well with a group home in Barrington and in Shelburne, as well as independent living programs in Shelburne and Barrington.