Proponents of Powell River Community Resource Centre (CRC) will be working hard to raise funds for the facility to ensure it remains open.
Powell River Employment Program (PREP) runs the facility, which documented over 18,000 visits in 2011 and provided more than 23,000 services.
Margaret Leitner, PREP executive administrator, said funding from the ministry of social development was due to end at the end of May 2012, but the ministry has agreed to fund the program until the end of December 2012.
Leitner said the seven-month extension is designated for providing regular programs and services at the facility, as well as an additional responsibility: to determine a “financial model that eliminates any reliance on the ministry of social development’s financial support.”
The ministry has offered to assist in the development of a new “funding model,” Leitner added, “although we’re not sure what that assistance could be. They have suggested that we identify alternative sources of funding, reduce services, review like or alternative services in the community and consult with other government agencies, including the City of Powell River.”
Mayor Dave Formosa is “very supportive of maintaining the CRC and he has been involved in the initial phases of exploring some of these aspects with us,” Leitner said.
CRC has already diversified its sources of funding, although each separate source provides specific programs, Leitner explained. For example, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) funds a brunch program and food workshops designed to provide information about healthy, economical meals. VCH, other agencies and local businesses contribute in-kind services, such as regular visits from a public health nurse.
However, finding support for the key component to the CRC, the drop-in, is the missing and critical link, Leitner said.
“It has been said that if not ‘social development,’ then what is the CRC?” Leitner said. “However, Minister [Stephanie] Cadieux did not seem to connect the continuation of the CRC with her ministry. Although she completely agreed that the CRC is a valuable service and although the ministry did fund the start-up and the first few years of operation, the on-going involvement of the ministry is uncertain at best.”
Cadieux was in Powell River on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 3 and 4. Cadieux visited Powell River Association for Community Living, Powell River Brain Injury Society and Career Link as well as attending the opening of International Choral Kathaumixw and touring the CRC on Wednesday morning.
However, Cadieux declined to comment on funding for the centre. “I’m just here to see the centre in person, get a tour, see how it’s impacting people and what’s all involved and all the community aspects,” she said. “It’s great to see the garden and get a feel for the town.”
Cadieux did say that she thought Kathaumixw was “absolutely beautiful. I think it’s a tremendous example of a community making a decision that they can do something and really showing the world what they can do.”
Formosa said he is trying to raise funds for the centre. He visited the facility in the spring after he received an email about it losing its funding and how it would have to close. “When I heard about that, I was kind of shocked,” he said. “I’ve had a little bit of dealings with the facility and I thought, what a loss. I know there’s a lot of at-risk people, lower income people, people down on their luck—-normal folks, but people who need help. They go there and they have all these resources available and it’s a place for people to gather.”
He met one person there who told him he wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for the centre, Formosa said. “He said he was going to take his life, he had nowhere to go,” Formosa said. After he found the centre, he started going there on a regular basis, then he started working in the kitchen, then the garden.
Formosa said he and MLA Nicholas Simons decided they were going to try to help the centre. They organized a meeting in Victoria with Cadieux, who told them there was no funding. “But she told us she would look into it and get back to us,” Formosa said.
After more follow-up meetings, the ministry did provide funding until the end of the year. Formosa is continuing to work on a plan to obtain core funding for the centre.
