BY ADELLE LARMOUR
Crisis brings opportunities to be creative. This is the positive spin United Way’s executive director Michael Cullen is placing on the agency’s 2009 fundraising campaign.
Cullen is excited about the challenge set before him and sees this year as a chance to reinvent and reach out for new ideas.
“We’re reaching out to our agencies and asking for advice…to step up and give us ideas and pool it together,” he says.
United Way has established a Youth Committee of high school and post-secondary students. The committee is a way to tap into the energy, ideas and the passion they so readily possess. “This is the first year we’ve really made a conscious effort to engage the youth,” says Cullen.
Campaign chair Lyse-Anne Papineau, director of the French Catholic School Board, made the involvement of youth a stipulation before she came on board for 2009.
“It was something we were leaning toward, but when she came in, it sealed the deal,” says Emily Mackwood, United Way’s resource development manager. “It’s a great partnership.”
This year, more than ever, Mackwood is hoping people will see the need in the community and help strengthen the city’s foundation by stepping up to the plate and making donations.
United Way began its first campaign in Sudbury in 1982. That same year, United Steelworkers came on board under the leadership of Local 6500 president Ron MacDonald. After 27 years, the Steelworkers still play a critical role in the organization’s success.
“We rely on a lot of sponsorships,” Cullen explains. Many of these sponsorships involve in-kind donations of graphic and printing services, office furniture, computers and many of the tools required to make the fundraising events possible.
Run by a volunteer board, the United Way also offers in-house programs such as the Volunteer Income Tax program and Leadership Development Services that assists non-profit agencies with training and support in areas of governance and management.
United Way Sudbury helps fund more than 60 programs and approximately 34 not-for-profit agencies, affecting citizens of all ages and backgrounds.
John Rimore, executive director of the John Howard Society, describes the funding dollars as a “godsend” not only for his organization but for the community in general.
“It helps our community remain healthy, safe and vibrant,” he says. United Way funding helps pay for his staff who perform direct service work, a program which assists those released from jail to lead positive lifestyles, obtain employment and become contributing members of society.
A smaller funding pocket assisted with a new program is called Sudbury Youth Rocks. It is a music program that assists youth who are experiencing difficulties in their lives to learn an instrument and play in a band.
“It has done wonders for the youth involved, giving them a sense of self-esteem, courage, independence, and a sense of what they are able to accomplish in using positive recreational outlets,” Rimore says.
Lise Sénécal, executive director of the Association des jeunes de la rue, runs the Red Jacket Outreach program for the homeless and the residential program called Foyer Notre Dame House, short-term housing for female youths between 16 and 19 years of age.
United Way dollars contribute significantly to the outreach work, and without that funding, it would drastically jeopardize the program, Sénécal says.
From Monday to Friday, pairs of “Red Jacket” outreach workers team up and walk the streets from 6 until 10:30 pm carrying 30-pound back packs filled with clothing, food, blankets and other necessities to help out homeless people or those at risk of becoming homeless. They make between 1,800 and 2,000 contacts each month.
“The population we’re dealing with is not the kind that will seek out help,” Sénécal says. “So our people go on the street and get them, and then refer them to other agencies, acting as liaisons.”
For the last five years, the residential program has averaged 230 admissions annually. Sénécal describes one interaction between a former resident.“She is now living down south and is working for an insurance company. She says: ‘Without you, I don’t know where I’d be today. You saved me a few times, believe me.’At the end of the day, it is about the people that helped us. Sometimes we don’t know what we did, but I know we are making a major difference in some of the youths’ lives.”
United Way dollars also fund the resident care co-ordinator at the Maison Vale Inco Hospice, a 10-bed bilingual non-profit community organization that provides a homelike environment where residents in their last three-months of life can die in peace with dignity, free of pain, surrounded by loved ones.
Executive director Leo Therrien says 90 per cent of people want to die at home, but 75 per cent actually die in hospital. The hospice provides 24-hour nursing care and runs at 100 per cent capacity, with a current waiting list of about 15 people. It too, relies heavily on volunteers, donor dollars and it own fund-raising events for part of its daily operational expenses.
Elaine Klym, the resident care co-ordinator, is responsible for managing the nursing care and patient admissions. She must go to their homes or the hospital to evaluate them in order to determine priority cases when a bed becomes available.
She describes the gratitude expressed by the family of a patient she chose to admit.
“The woman (caretaker) sobbed in my arms because she was so thankful to be here,” Klym says. “She could no longer manage at home and was so relieved to have her loved one here.”
She says the staff and residents often become family to those who have little or no family. “It’s amazing the bonds you build.”
Like the ripples in a pond, United Way’s donor dollars are far reaching, touching lives from the very young to the very old. Yet it is the generosity of the Sudbury people and the volunteers that make all the recipient agencies and the programs a reality.
Regardless of the current economic climate, the needs of the community remain as steadfast as Cullen’s exuberance and positive outlook for the approaching fall campaign.
“It is nice to make a difference and be part of a greater cause,” he says. “There will be challenges, but are we scared of it? Not at all.”
www.unitedwaysudbury.com
www.johnhowardsudbury.com
www.jeunesdelarue.ca
www.maisonsudburyhospice.org
