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WELLINGTON NORTH ‒ Block Parent applications across the municipality have doubled in number following an incident in Arthur earlier this week.
Since council supported the formation of the group two years ago, and the local Block Parent program has seen community interest, volunteers say it's nothing like the surge they’ve experienced over the last two days.
Barb Leigh, chair of the Wellington North Block Parents, believes she’s received at least 21 new volunteer applications over the last two days.
In May 2022, the program had eight active block parents.
“One person can make a difference but 100 people can make an even bigger (one),” said Leigh. “The sign placed in the window means ‘I will help you.’”
A network of safe homes for people of all ages to access, registered block parents simply need to place a sign in a street-facing window when they are home and available to participate.
The program's signature red and white sign indicates to community members that the home is police-screened and a trained adult is available to provide assistance or call for help.
"A block parent's role is basically to answer your door when someone knocks on it," said Leigh. "We're not inviting people into our homes, we're offering a safe spot to go if somebody is lost, hurt, or feels like they're in danger."
According to their website, every adult living in a registered Block Parent home must update their application and police vulnerable sector check every two years to participate.
If participants move, change their contact information, or have someone move in or out of their home, they must notify the program and if they retire, they must return their window sign.
"We've had several 'lucky situations' over the last couple of years where (a victim) had their cell phone on or they were able to get to somewhere else but what if they're all alone next time?" said Leigh. "The whole idea (of the program) is if someone is alone, and they need somebody, it should only be a two or three-minute run down the street."
Block Parent committee member, Joe Wettlaufer, believes the program's recent application spike is related to the recent arrest of a man for sexual assault that was surrounded in social media discussion, which included posting the man's photo and address on community Facebook groups.
"We don't want people going out with their axes and baseball bats, thinking that they're gonna become the hero," said Wetlauffer. "We want people to have a safe spot that they can go to make a phone call to the police and then the police can deal with it. It shouldn't be the community taking things into their own hands."
Leigh and Wetlauffer believe the Block Program is also a great alternative for those in the community to feel involved without becoming vigilantes.
“We had an incident in Mount Forest a little while back, but we didn't see too many new signs going out which is concerning,” said Wettlaufer. “We shouldn't be waiting for another incident to happen, we need to be a little bit more proactive on getting these signs in people's homes and windows so that there is a safe spot for someone that's in distress.”
While the Block Parent program initially focused on children when it was first introduced in the 1960’s, the group says it has since grown to encompass anyone who needs help.
“We can all be angry, we can all be scared but we can do something,” said Leigh. “We all know there is more power in numbers…the more safe strangers we have, the safer we will feel.”
But some concerned residents like Kyle Greig said that while he's happy to see someone doing something, these kinds of measures “shouldn’t be necessary.”
“I didn’t move to Arthur to feel like I live in Toronto,” said Greig, on Facebook. “Small-town living isn’t supposed to be like this.”
To become a Block Parent, interested parties can reach out to Leigh at [email protected] to arrange to pick up an application.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
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