By Melanie Sharpe
Emergency funds provided by the City of Ottawa will ensure the survival of the The Anti-Poverty Project, but only for the time being, says the organization’s program co-ordinator.
Without the funding to provide services and pay staff above their current welfare level incomes the project would have had to shut down, says Jeannette Robert.
“We have very little income right now, definitely not enough to survive on,” says executive director Ron Kellestine.
The city came to the rescue late last week agreeing to short-term funding for the program when grants from the federal government were delayed.
The organization has worked directly with hundreds of low-income Ottawa youth and women. Its services provided them with technology training, career and personal development programming and job placements.
It provides computer access centres throughout the city that provide technology services to people who otherwise may not have access to them. In addition, they provide technology based support services for other non-profit organizations, including web-page training and the creation of publicity material, needs assessment surveys and setting up data bases.
The project is currently funded on a project-by-project basis, receiving no annual funding.
“If you’re an organization like ourselves that are a whole bunch of activities,” says Kellestine. “There are always some that don’t have any money attached to them.”
TAPP staff members had been donating their own money to keep the project alive.
“Myself and the president have put in thousands of dollars of our personal money. This is coming from cashing in our RRSPs or exhausting personal lines of credit to try to keep going,” Kellestine says.
The federal funds which were expected in September have been delayed until the new year.
“We were promised money from HRSDC by August or September but they’ve been really slow at getting anything done. It looks like we won’t get the funding until early next year,” he says.
Until the federal government’s funding comes through, TAPP has requested money from the City to survive. It is also applying for permanent funding.
City of Ottawa spokesperson Valerie Petit says she doesn’t know when the final funding decision will be made.
“It can be days, it can be weeks, it can be months. It depends on each project. Funding is on an individual basis,” she says.
Kellestine says the City previously cut funding for TAPP’s training services two years ago.
“The City of Ottawa hasn’t given us any training money in almost two years. The smallest contributor has been the city, yet they have also been the greatest benefactor of what we do,” Kellestine says.
“Pretty much everybody we provide training for is on social assistance, and the City of Ottawa is responsible for almost all social assistance programs. Even if the City of Ottawa has not given us money for a program, we’re benefiting them because we’re benefiting social assistance people,” he says.
Robert would have had to find a new job once funding ran out.
She says TAPP’s services have proven to be successful in the community and she will continue to fight for the group’s future.
“Our programs were extremely successful and I want to continue on doing them but because of a lack of funding I can’t. I’m fighting for TAPP’s life right now with the City of Ottawa,” she says. “We’ve survived [on] funding from different areas, but now we are pleading for core funding.”
Petit says that to obtain permanent funding, a city councillor will have to make the request then have it approved by committee and council.
TAPP can get emergency funding without going through this process.
“However, it has to be determined whether this group, given its mandate, can receive the funds, and if the city has the funds to give. That’s being determined right now by city staff,” says Petit.
Robert says TAPP’s future is bleak without new funding.
“I believe we’re going to succeed. I don’t take no very well. And I’m going to fight until I get what rightfully belongs to the grassroots organizations.”