I would like to bring attention to the reality of community-based agencies, that we are for the most part--certainly here in Winnipeg--already underresourced.
While we have the best practices stories, for the most part all of the organizations sitting at this table here hire those youths who are success stories. We engage and utilize them in helping others and give them an opportunity to give back.
The reality for an executive director in any of these organizations is that we're the ones writing the proposals, answering the phones, doing payroll, and buying fish for the feast on Friday. That's because the administration dollars that we ask for are, 90% of the time, either reduced or denied.
Organizations are underfunded to build their own infrastructure in order to be able to focus on getting the word out. When you're doing something, you're not doing something else. For most community-based agencies, we're on the front lines with our sleeves rolled up, working in the communities.
One last thing. With some federal funding and opportunities to build priorities and funding programs together, we can take a look at the reporting requirements and the value differences we have with that. Currently, most of the reporting requirements to the federal government are counting heads and counting problems. That's just not our approach in the work we do in the communities. It's about building people and communities from the inside out. That doesn't always jive with the need you have, so it becomes something in addition to the work we do.
There's a lot of stress that organizations are already under, and there's not a lot of help coming our way.