A new initiative, held in partnership between the Sarnia-Lambton Ontario Health Team (SL-OHT) and Lambton County Library, will deliver health and social services in a different way within the community.
A Connection Cube is expected to be installed and operational at the downtown Sarnia Library at some point in July.
The free community resource offers residents a private space for appointments with health practitioners, social service workers, judicial officials, and other agencies.
Library Services Manager Darlene Coke said the cube will be equipped with an iPad and a telephone for people to use during their appointments. Time in the cube can be booked through the library during regular business hours.
The Connection Cube was officially unveiled at the Age-Friendly Expo on June 14. Coke said she believes people were impressed with the cube's soundproofing capabilities.
"Despite the buzz in the hall, it was quite quiet within the Connection Cube itself. I think people appreciated the flexibility of the units," Coke said. "It avoids us having to go through the expense and also the disruption of a capital renovation project, building walls and repurposing units tied to HVAC and all those other types of things... it's a very quick and simple way to add a room or a meeting space within a wide open space."
Coke said it also offers the flexibility to potentially move the cube in the future if needed.
Similar meeting pods exist at other facilities, such as the Chatham-Kent Public Library.
"Also, we're just seeing across the whole continent, this shift of libraries being so much more than just books," she said. "Historically, libraries were pretty much places where you just went to pick up books. Today, libraries are really diversifying and we're finding that libraries are a lot about people making connections and people looking for places to meet."
Coke said an official opening date has not been set as they're still going through training and finishing the online booking component for the Connection Cube.
SL-OHT Executive Lead Steve Pancino said this component of an overall age-friendly project has been in the works for about four months.
Pancino said during this process, the OHT identified 10 potential sites in Lambton County to host Connection Cubes.
"We did a current state review of areas in the county where there are limited connectivity (WiFi) services, transportation issues, and patients that are in vulnerable or marginalized areas. So we actually have nine more sites we would like to put these in, we only had funding for one," Pancino said. "So we chose the Sarnia library as the initial site just because of the volume of potential patients that would have access to it but we do have proposals into Ontario Health to fund additional units."
Approximately $30,000 was allocated from the OHT budget to support the Connection Cube at Sarnia's downtown library.
*Update: The Connection Cube opened at the Sarnia Library on July 11. The cube can be reserved by visiting the library or by calling (519) 337-3291.