by Kyle Wells [email protected] Funding for the Powell River Community Resource Centre is in jeopardy as the ministry of social development evaluates proposals for its New Employment Program that will be launched in British Columbia in April 2012.
The current funding for the centre, from the ministry of social development, finishes May 31, 2012. Requests for proposals for funding under the New Employment Program were accepted by the ministry until May 26, 2011. A proposal is in for resource centre funding but successful applications will not be announced until the fall.
The resource centre has been operating in Powell River for four years, providing clients with resources for legal aid, housing concerns, access to clothing and food and other essentials. The centre also provides an unofficial social network that Career Link program director Lyn Adamson said is harder to quantify but equally as important.
“The centre creates an environment for people to network with each other and support each other,” said Adamson. “It’s not a permanent solution but it sure creates a lot of temporary solutions.”
The centre operates on around $110,000 a year, all of which comes from the ministry out of a grant that goes to Career Link. Under the New Employment Program that grant will no longer exist, according to Adamson, and many programs across the province will lose their funding unless they qualify for one of the new program’s grants. Adamson said it’s likely they will lose the funding for the centre.
The ministry cannot comment on proposals currently under evaluation but a spokesperson did provide general information on the changes. According to information provided, the new model will “help ensure that people receive the same or better services, with the same or better access, and increased choice than they do under the current system.
“After executive consultations, we learned that the current employment model has inefficiencies,” according to the ministry, “is confusing to clients with respect to where the appropriate services can be obtained and service delivery is not consistent across the province.”
Liz Lane, the centre’s manager, said the centre has over 1,000 visits a month from a large community of people who come to the centre to socialize, enjoy a meal, drink a cup of coffee and have a place where they can feel at ease to relax and hang out.
“You don’t have that kind of traffic if there isn’t a need,” said Lane, “and even if the need is just a question of coffee and a snack or something like that, that’s important to people who don’t have a place to have coffee and a snack.”
The level of support and the informal community that the centre provides are just as important to the well-being of impoverished residents and Lane believes that should that web of support disappear the community would be the worse off for it.
Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons believes it would be a terrible loss for the community to lose the funding. He said he recognizes how well used the centre is and he will be approaching the government.
“Hundreds of people go to that place to maintain a sense of belonging and community,” said Simons, “people who live in poverty and need help finding homes and finding food and finding connections to community programs and resources. It’s a hub in our community and without the hub the spokes all fall out.”
