Letter dated April 15, 2016 from Mitzi Dean, Pacific Centre Family Services Association Re: General Operations

PACIFIC CENTRE FAMILY SERVICES ASSOCIATION

April 15, 2016

Town of View Royal 45 View Royal Ave. Victoria BC V9B 1A6

Dear Mayor and Council:

I would like to thank Mayor Screech and Councillor Mattison for taking time to meet with me recently. I was able to update them on our general operations and how we serve View Royal residents. Please see attached our one page summary of our annual report. You will see that we serve over 1000 individuals a year, of these 12-15 are View Royal residents.

I was also able to brief Mayor Screech and Councillor Mattison on PCFSA's new Centre of Wellbeing and future plans for an Open House (April 19th, 4-6pm) and groundbreaking event (May 5th, 2pm at 324 Goldstream Avenue). More details are included in our recent newsletter attached.

We also discussed the grants available from View Royal and the process for applying for these. From the perspective of the community social services sector and PCFSA It is important to try to balance the required resources needed to apply and report on these grants with the value of the grants themselves. Ethically PCFSA does not discriminate against individuals referred to our programs based on whether we receive funding from their municipality. However given our service to View Royal community we do consider that PCFSA should be eligible for a community grant every year. Nevertheless the amount of management time required to request and fulfil the grant application process and reporting can be prohibitive and counter productive. Like municipalities, we feel accountable to spend our resources with efficiency and be able to demonstrate benefits that are good value. PCFSA receives line item funding from both Colwood and Langford for youth outreach services. They are showing true community leadership in supporting this preventive program over more than thirty years. Economically it is also beneficial to the community as the return on investment is significant, keeping Protective Services resources demands lower through reducing anti-social behaviours among youth.

I would like to offer some suggestions to be considered by Mayor and Council so that we can collaborate in partnership to maximize the value of these grants and put them to best use to benefit the community.

Please consider options that:

• An organization can apply for one grant for a maximum amount per year for each year of the duration of the term of the elected council,
• An organization can apply for a grant three to four times their eligible maximum to be spent in one year only once during the term of the elected council,
• An organization can submit a final report that is prepared for a range of funders, not just View Royal,
• An organization can work in partnership with municipal services and offer added value to a staff team and receive a line item contract.

I would be pleased to attend a Council Meeting to discuss further.

Many thanks for your consideration.

Yours sincerely,

Mitzi Dean BA, Dip SW, MA, MPhil, CEC Executive Director Pacific Centre Family Services Association