PHC gets community input on future
Clients looking for chance at a decent living
By Janina Stajic
Monday, February 8 2010
People for a Healthy Community (PHC) took steps towards establishing a strategic plan for the organization, when the board and staff met for a day-long planning session on Saturday. Their aim was to prioritize the goals of PHC by looking at the feedback they’ve been gathering from community members during the past few months.
Kathyrn Molloy, executive director of PHC, said they had circulated six strategic questions:
What are PHC’s strengths?
What can PHC do better?
What are the key social issues on Gabriola?
How can PHC best serve this community in the next 2-5 years?
What programs should PHC continue to offer?
What new programs should PHC consider offering?
“We wanted to get as broad a scope as possible,” says Kathryn, “so we offered a couple of different opportunities for the community to meet with us and contribute their thoughts. We also met separately with our clients. And, I’ve been asking these same questions of community leaders whom I’ve been meeting with since October.”
The goal of the questions was to get a better understanding of the needs of the community and the role PHC should play in meeting those needs.
Kathryn started collating the responses before Saturday’s meeting, and had already seen some key themes.
“Some of the major issues that came up both for community members and our clients were things like food security, affordable housing, and lack of on-island jobs. And everyone wants to make sure the food bank continues.”
However, says Kathryn, there were differences in what came up for community members and what came up for PHC’s clients, who include seniors, people with disabilities, young families, people with addiction issues, and single parents.
“Our clients talked a lot about affordable housing and emergency shelter. They also talked about advocacy with government organizations which don’t understand the needs of people on Gabriola. For example, many of our clients live on the north end of the island. The only laundry and shower facilities are at the south end and there is no public transportation.”
PHC’s clients also talked about affordable housing in a specific way. “They want long-term decent housing. Not housing without running water or heat.”
And, they need someone to advocate for them. “There is a lot of fear among the clients in speaking out. They don’t want to lose the place they are in or be judged. Many feel there is a lot of discrimination out there.”
One other area both community members and clients agreed upon: the need to keep the food bank, which continues to meet a growing demand, and the gardens running. Luckily PHC has already secured two grants to continue with the gardening.
As to new programs, Kathryn said there was a huge list of suggestions, which included subsidized or free ferry passes, daily meal programming, more crises and mental health and addiction counselling, weekly discussions, emergency shelters and emergency back-up heat, community wood lot, cold weather and power out access, intervention programs for youth, cooking programs, job bank and training, and advocacy.
“Overall my feeling is we need to become a neighbourhood resource group. If you need to find out what’s happening, come to PHC. If you need to get food, or emergency shelter or help to get to the doctor, or keep your social services on track, or get forms filled out for disability, or can’t make your next rent, come to PHC.”
The next step is to have an approved strategic plan by the end of March and, Kathryn says, “set our priorities for the next few years. It’s pretty exciting to get this plan in place, because otherwise it’s difficult to articulate who and what you are in terms of fundraising.”
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