Benjamin Segobaetso – Local Journalism Initiative
Published online September 9, 2026, at www.pontiacjournal.com
CAMPBELL’S BAY – Across the Pontiac, distance can determine who gets help. For residents of remote communities, reaching mental-health and social services can mean travelling through a region where public transportation options are limited. Others may simply be unaware that assistance exists.
AutonHomme Pontiac is hoping to narrow that divide. The Campbell’s Bay-based non-profit plans to launch a mobile outreach van this fall, sending workers into underserved communities to provide mental-health support, harm-reduction services and information directly to residents. Pierre-Alain Jones, director of AutonHomme Pontiac, said the project grew from a practical problem confronting organizations serving rural communities: Pontiac covers an expansive territory, but services cannot always be physically present everywhere.
“In areas that are farther away, people don’t necessarily know the organization exists,” Jones told the Pontiac Journal.
The van will make the organization more visible in those communities while reducing any obstacles around transportation. By putting staff and resources on the road, they hope to reverse the usual equation: instead of expecting people to travel to services, the services will travel to them. How frequently the van visits individual communities will depend on the level of demand identified during the pilot.
The vehicle will also serve as a mobile harm-reduction resource. Jones said
workers will distribute clean drug-use supplies and provide educational information about safer consumption practices, extending outreach to people who may not seek assistance through conventional office-based programs.
Its role will not be confined to isolated communities. AutonHomme plans to deploy the van at hockey and baseball games and other public gatherings, using large community events as opportunities to provide information and raise awareness about available services.
The project remains experimental. Jones stressed that AutonHomme will evaluate the mobile model, assessing whether it reaches the people intended and whether there is
sufficient demand to justify continuing it.
The office portion of the vehicle is nearly finished, he said, and the van is expected to be ready within weeks. “The goal was to have the van ready and displayed at the Shawville Fair,” Jones said. “Unfortunately, we will not be able to meet that timeline.”
The project is financed through a grant from Santé Québec, according to Jones. AutonHomme Pontiac provides mental-health support, temporary housing and other assistance, primarily to men experiencing difficulties, across the MRC Pontiac and the Municipality of Pontiac.
For an organization headquartered in Campbell’s Bay, the van represents a shift in how that assistance can be delivered across a sprawling rural territory taking the service beyond the office and into communities where the distance to help has itself become a barrier.
Photo: Jean Paulin, employee at AutonHomme stands in front of the newly purchased mobile outreach van.
