The foundation serves the entire province and several rural communities – Annapolis Royal, Bridgetown, Lunenburg County, Wolfville and Yarmouth – have created Community Funds within the Community Foundation of Nova Scotia. These are endowed funds created and led by those on the ground in the community and administered and supported by the Community Foundation of Nova Scotia.
For instance, the fledgling Lunenburg County Community Fund is embarking on its first Vital Signs.
Vital Signs is an annual community check-up, conducted by community foundations across Canada, including 16 in 2009.
“Vital Signs measures the vitality of communities, identifies significant trends, and assigns grades in at least 10 areas,” explains Allison Kouzovnikov, Executive Director of Community Foundation of Nova Scotia.
“The separation of fact from fiction is one of the greatest benefits realized through a Vital Signs process. Often it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, but how do we know that the proverbial squeaky wheel is the one that’s most in need? That’s where Vital Signs plays a key role: because it is based on fact, it gives local citizens an unbiased perspective of their community and a strong foundation upon which to plan accordingly.”
Project manager Lisanne Turner will begin work on the Lunenburg-area community report card in the next few weeks. A Masters student at Acadia University, Turner has focused on rural health delivery and also headed up the 2009 Vital Signs for Wolfville.
“We need to understand our strengths and our weaknesses if we are going to work toward making a better community,” says Jim Barkhouse, chairman of the Lunenburg County Community Fund.
“Our members share a common belief that Lunenburg County has much to offer as a great place to live, work and raise a family. We believe there is much more that can be done here if we work together. Our initial goal is to understand more about the county and the quality of life here,” he says.
The Vital Signs project will involve a series of consultations with community members and area organizations.
“This is an exciting project for many reasons, but especially when you know that there are local people who are prepared to invest in finding ways to improve the future of this county,” notes Barkhouse.
The findings from Vital Signs continue to reverberate for the Wolfville Community Fund in the Annapolis Valley. The community fund produced its first report card in 2009, the same year it was founded.
“It had much to say about our community as a safe and welcoming, healthy environment, with an active art and cultural content, good schools and high-quality sports and entertainment facilities, and a good level of public participation,” says Wolfville Community Fund chairman Dick Groot.
“However, the poverty figures were far worse than we expected. In fact, they were significantly worse than the provincial and national averages.”
Adds Kouzovnikov: “Without a Vital Signs report, it is doubtful that Wolfville’s poverty issue would have ever come to light, or managed to maintain its position in the spotlight as one needing immediate attention.”
That finding led the organization to focus its fundraising efforts on the poverty issue, financing modest projects that will have a significant and long-lasting impact on mitigating poverty in the community.
The Wolfville Community Fund will soon be accepting grant proposals for projects with practical goals related to poverty, and will select recipients in June.
It has also taken a novel approach to fundraising, including a community dinner organized by the local Lions Club on April 30, and an art auction and wine-and-cheese party at Groot’s home – in his studio and his wife’s garden – in late June. He’s also in talks with the Acadia University hockey team to hold a fundraising match with a team of local celebrities.
“By the end of the year we’ll have some early results of our projects, as well as some more money in the fund,” says Groot.
Photo credit: Jim Barkhouse
No comments:
Post a Comment