Today we lost a colleague. Today, we lost an employee. Today, we are losing a worker in whom the users had confidence. Today we lost a friend.
Posted yesterday at 10:00 a.m.
This is the sad reality of community organizations. A reality that today, as an organization, Alter Justice is facing. We are losing a piece of the organization, a golden stakeholder, because we don’t have the funding to keep her.
Sadness. Anger. Disarray. Exhaustion.
So many negative emotions at once that could have been avoided if governments recognized the work we do every day.
We have a great problem at our organization: we receive new requests every day. Nice problem, yes, but only if we are able to make it happen. We can barely keep our heads above water.
With the departure of our colleague, we will be overwhelmed by a new wave, trying to swim even harder than we already do, even more exhausted than we already are.
We are not an organization that helps young people in difficulty. We are not an organization that helps victims of domestic violence. We are an organization that helps a clientele that society discriminates against and rejects. Ironically, we are discriminated against because we help this discriminated clientele. And yet, our mission is to promote this same rehabilitation that we chant with great fanfare and that we undermine in all sorts of ways. We help make society more just and safe by reducing the risk of criminal recidivism. We are told thank you and “ciao the tartlets” for funding.
Research, call for projects, refusal. Research, request for funding, refusal. Research, call for projects, refusal. Research, request for funding, refusal. Here’s what our organization struggles with each year, trying to survive with the growing demands. Of course, we have successes, otherwise our stranded wreck would have already been found. But these successes are not as numerous as the refusals.
Sadness. Anger. Disarray. Exhaustion.
Emotions that we face every time we receive a negative response to a call for projects or a request for funding.
In the City of Quebec, article 2.1.2 of the Policy for the recognition of non-profit organizations provides that “organizations whose main mission […] [l]”support or accompaniment of people struggling with addiction or who have gone to court” are not eligible for recognition [de la Ville].
This article speaks for itself: discriminated against to help the discriminated against, even if the provincial government recognizes our organization. Why can’t (or won’t) the City do the same?
At the Quebec government level, we have seen an increase in the budget for community organizations. But this increase is significantly less than what we need. It is estimated that in order to properly carry out their mission, organizations in Quebec need an additional $460 million per year on a recurring basis. And the latest budget ads offer a measly 25% of what’s requested.
At the federal level, we are launching a “hidden” funding project to help organizations that offer assistance with pardon applications, without any authority mentioning it to us, although we are a recognized national organization. Results ? With barely a month to file an application, under an obscure name, it slipped through our fingers. Call, email, nothing to do: we are refused to submit a request. And that’s when we have an answer.
This is the dark reality of the community, where we have to fight with the various levels of government to have working conditions that make sense, while fighting to defend the rights of our users and to give them a service that lives up to their their needs.