By Valencia Grant
The appointment last month of a new executive director for the Bronson Centre has left some tenants apprehensive about its ability to heal their strained relationship with the board of directors of the “non-profit mall.”
On Dec. 8, Mary Stern, former executive director of the Distress Centre of Ottawa and the Region, took over the position at the Bronson Centre.
Hoppy Roy, a counsellor for People, Words and Change, an adult literacy program at the mall, says member groups such as hers will also have to deal with a financial manager and a project manager who will be hired shortly. “And all those people are answerable to the board of directors whom we do not trust,” she says.
Roy says the sense of community and trust plummeted after the former executive director, Maureen Moloughney, was fired on Sept. 21.
“It’s not the same place. It was a building that was full of life, music, love and laughter,” says Moloughney. “It’s not (the same) anymore because of the firing and the subsequent actions that were taken; the lack of communication between us and the board and between us and the Grey Sisters.”
The Pembroke-based Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, which owns the Bronson Centre, appoints its board of directors. The board has met only twice with members since the mall opened four years ago at the former Immaculata High School.
Stern says she realizes the past couple of months have taken an emotional toll on the member groups.
She says it’s necessary for the groups to get a clearer perception of her new role as executive director and her background, which includes co-ordinating a community centre in Toronto.
So far, she has met with about 15 of the 29 tenants.
“The sense is that, probably in the future, some form of community will develop but nobody I’ve talked to yet is really sure how that’s going to happen or how much time it’s going to take.
“In talking to 15 different groups, not everybody thinks the same or has the same kind of focus.”
Roy says if Stern expresses interest in community development to the board, her concerns will fall on deaf ears.
“I don’t know how she would be able to (implement community development) within this present structure,” says Roy, who had not yet met with the executive director.
But Stern says she intends to focus on long-term funding for the Bronson Centre, not community development.
Bill Ayotte, the president and co-ordinator of A Post Psychiatric Leisure Experience (APPLE) in the mall, has met with Stern to discuss his concerns.
“We’re just trying to survive here,” says Ayotte
Roy says member group representatives will meet next month to brainstorm about ways to enhance their community.