Two years after the start of the pandemic, while the community environment is still on the front line to support people in vulnerable situations, we learn that only 45 of the 109 million from the sectoral emergency fund have been distributed to community organizations.
Posted yesterday at 3:00 p.m.
At the end of 2021, barely half (54%) of organizations had received emergency funding from the government since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.
It’s not the intention that counts
The government, rather than trusting us by improving, even temporarily, our basic funding, has clung to a utilitarian vision of organizations by wanting to control the use of all amounts, without taking into account the rapid evolution of needs.
Funds were inaccessible to many organizations. In fact, they were targeting issues that did not correspond to the multiple needs on the ground.
In addition, at a time when the organizations were managing a health crisis, the administrative heaviness of accountability slowed them down, while the claims deadlines were too short – sometimes even a single week.
In its most recent research report, the Observatory of Autonomous Community Action clearly demonstrates that the government’s response to the community sector has not been adequate. Emergency funds failed to compensate for the fact that 69% community organizations suffered a loss of funding during the first wave.
We know the solution: increased funding for the mission of community organizations as well as a government action plan to better support them. This solution, the CAQ government has been promising us for almost four years, but each budget brings its share of disappointments.
The organizations do not intend to let this scenario repeat itself once again in the 2022 budget. It is therefore through a massive four-day wave of actions, strikes and rotating closures, from the 21st to the 24th February 2022, which the organizations will respond to the government.
A necessary mobilization
During the pandemic, between 70% and 88% of community organizations observed an increase in support needs (psychological, helping relationship), basic needs (food, housing) and referral needs to other resources.
Exhaustion affects workers in the field just as much: 89% of organizations saw the feeling of fatigue (or exhaustion) within their work teams increase with the crisis, and 84% of them indicated that they encountered difficulties in terms of mental health issues within their work teams.
Three-quarters of organizations (74%) struggle to keep people in their jobs, while 4 out of 5 organizations (79%) have difficulty filling open positions.
At the end of 2021, three-quarters of organizations (77%) indicated that they needed additional funding for the current year. On average, this need for additional funding amounts to $132,835 per organization.
The autonomous community action movement is squeezed like a lemon, but has run out of juice. We really wonder if we will be forced to close, so let’s avoid a part of the social safety net collapsing before we act.
The time has come to walk the talk and fund adequately all of the 4,000 independent community action organizations.