Non-profits must work together

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/11/2022 (658 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The editorial “Root causes of social issues must be addressed before change can happen” touches on economy as a reason for Brandon’s social issues. While I agree with the writer’s perspective as to what many communities across Canada are facing, I think their second to last paragraph speaks to the larger truth.

“’Today there are over 4,000 food banks and agencies dedicated to addressing hunger in communities across the country,’ the website states. ‘The services of these organizations continue to be in high demand and are an essential resource for Canadians living in food insecure households.’”

Canada has 10 provinces and three territories. Dividing the 4,000 food banks between the 13 geographical areas would mean that each has 308 food banks in their area. If that is the case then Manitoba’s 10 largest cities would average 30.8 places to access food banks. Logically, we know this can’t be accurate.

Let’s go a bit deeper. Samaritan House Ministries expenses filed on March 31 totalled $2,626,337. (All registered charities’ filing information can be found at https://bit.ly/2Jofs5U.) If all the 4,000 charities had expenses equal to Samaritan House, they would require $105,055,080 annually to carry out their operations. With that logic, we know this annual amount would be much higher as a larger centre like Winnipeg would see higher costs to function each food bank.

My question is this, do we need 4,000 separate food banks in Canada?

Brandon itself tries to spread itself thin by providing duplicate services. Each of those services has to go with their hand out to the three levels of government and to the citizens of their community. Don’t you think after a while, the government and the people who are donating might be asking why after many years of giving they haven’t seen a return on their investment?

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident,” Arthur Schopenhauer said.

For many years now, I have been putting our community on the spot by pointing out the truths as to why our social issues are not being addressed effectively. Because of that, I have been ridiculed, opposed, and as is happening now, the truth is becoming self-evident.

As much as it is portrayed to be happening, Brandon doesn’t work collaboratively as a community. The reason for this is the competition for funding that makes the non-profit world have a dog-eat-dog mentality. Each wants to thrive and survive, so they do whatever it takes even if it means leaving their lane to take on projects they know they can’t do well or exclusively. This is called duplication of services and we have our fair share of these in Brandon.

So, what is the solution? A mind shift has to take place among non-profits. They have to put the needs of the underserved above the needs of the organization. They should not attempt to provide services that take away from the greater good. They need to come together and work as a group to develop a plan on how to best serve the community. They need to be prepared to sacrifice what they aren’t doing well and instead support the non-profit that can do the service well. They need effective collaboration.

Debbie Arsenault, CEO of Brandon’s United Way for 30 years, had a dream. She talked about it often. About having all the non-profits sharing a space to bring efficiencies to them while having the ability to literally work together for the greater good. A dreamer before her time. Are we there yet Brandon?

KIM LONGSTREET

Brandon