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MacDuff’s call: Sold on Community Chest program from the start

Given one in seven people in Canada lives in poverty, clearly there is a lot of need.
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Cheryl Ashlie.

Vicki Kipps and her team of ‘can-do’ people are continually making a positive difference in people’s lives.

Kipps is the executive director of Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Community Services. Her team is also part of the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows-Katzie Community Network — a co-operative structure made up of 200 members, representing 80-plus agencies that join together to develop solutions relating to the social issues within our communities.

Recently, they partnered with the Maple Ridge Community Foundation board — another group of can-do folks — in a grass roots initiative called the Community Chest, and exciting opportunities are afoot for people who want to contribute to a program that supports people who are trying to better their own lives, but face a crisis situation.

I was sold on the Community Chest program from the minute I heard about the concept in 2013, as I have always focussed my volunteer work and financial contributions towards activities that support the intent of the proverb, ‘Give a man a fish and he is fed for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.’

The Community Chest follows that premise.

We know that a civil society accepts that there will always be people who require support, due to circumstances outside of their control. So our society agrees to provide a safety net for those people, with an understanding that the rest of society will strive to be self-sufficient, so such supports do not become disproportionately burdensome.

Yet, even people who manage to be self-sufficient can have a crisis in their lives that can set them back, so it is important to also have mechanisms in place that assist those people.

The Community Chest is that type of assistance.

The idea of the program is individuals, or organizations raise funds to donate to the Community Chest fund, which are then dispersed in the form of a one time, no obligation loan to people who fit a criteria of need. The criteria is that there are no other existing channels of social services and related resources available to the person and it is a one-time only request for assistance.

Once, a young family received assistance from the Community Chest so that the mom could complete her practicum placement, which would allow her to re-enter the workforce. Via the Community Chest, bus passes and a gas card were purchased for the family to enable the mom to travel to her practicum placement, which then allowed her to complete her academic program.

Although the Ministry of Social Development spends about $2.53 billion dollars annually on social services, the uniqueness of people’s lives make it impossible to cover every conceivable need that may arise.

Adding in the reality that many working people and seniors who live on minimal pensions fall within the Census Canada statistic of one in seven people living in poverty in Canada, it is clear that there is a lot of need.

For these people, a small set-back could prove to be insurmountable, as they barely make it from cheque to cheque. But with the Community Chest option, a bad situation may be prevented from becoming worse.

To date, the average loan that has been dispersed has been around $330, covering crises areas relating to shelter, security of livelihood, safety and health.

The mom in my example had reached a point of almost achieving her goal, but a requirement of the program proved to be a financial barrier she could not fit into her budget, which could have halted her progress.

By being referred to the Community Chest through one of the six referral agencies that oversee the program, she finished her education and is now in a better position to improve the lives of her children.

These agencies have intimate knowledge of what is available through social services and other agencies, as well as the existing gaps, so they are in a good position to assess if people are truly in need of the funds, as well as serving to manage the money right through to its intended purpose.

I am grateful that I live in a community where organizations such as the Maple Ridge Community Foundation and the Community Network work together.

This type of collaboration is envied throughout the province, as the dynamic of the Community Network is unique to Maple Ridge.

However, programs such as their Community Chest can only exist through the generosity of individual donations and they are in need of such, which is why I was so willing to lend my voice to bringing awareness to this wonderful initiative.

As we head into autumn, Thanksgiving is one of the most benevolent holidays that we celebrate, as it affords us an opportunity to reflect on all that we are grateful for, so it is fitting that the founders of the Community Chest are launching their Community Chest awareness campaign during the Thanksgiving week.

And if one thinks of the rate of return to society, both financially and socially, by the small investment that was made to the mom and her family I described, I can understand why the Maple Ridge Community Foundation has partnered with the Community Network to make it easier to donate to this program.

• Contact the Community Network at 604-476-2447 or the Maple Ridge Community Foundation at 604-466-3312.

Cheryl Ashlie is a former Maple Ridge school trustee, city councillour, constituency assistant and current

citizen of the year.