Last Thursday, thanks to an invitation from E4C Board President Kristin Morra, I went and checked out the E4C AGM. I had heard of programs such as “Kids in the Hall”, “Artstart” or their school lunch programs but I didn’t know that they all were programs facilitated by E4C.
Two keynote speakers were present, the always insightful Paula Simons and the passionate and compassionate E4C CEO Michael Farris.
Paula gave a fantastic speech about working pragmatically for change within our own communities. Too often we can get overwhelmed and go into paralysis when faced with some of the big problems facing society; homelessness, poverty, addictions… Her message that we can never settle, and that we can never forget our moral duty to help others really resonated with myself and many of the audience members.
Michael spoke about the important work that E4C is doing in the community and the challenges facing the organization and our city. He spoke passionately about the negative effects of the recent inner-city school closures, and the problems with the continued concentration of homeless support centres in the inner city. Both of these issues he attributed to decision-makers making isolated decisions in “stovepipes” and the failure of all levels of government to collaborate. He spoke passionately about the ‘ghettoization’ of our communities that occurs after a school closes in some of the most socially-challenged areas and spoke about how the ramifications from the closure of McCauley will affect all of us in this city, not just the students, or the parents, for another 20 years. I am reminded that there is no formula when it comes to school closures that can take into account all of the complexities and unique circumstances and that each individual decision must be evaluated on its own merits.
His points about the province, the city and the school board working together to find creative and collaborative outcomes resonated with many members of the audience who shared their experiences with me after the formal program. Many of these volunteers saw first hand the benefits that their school lunch programs had on some of the most needy and expressed genuine concern for these kids.
During her opening remarks Kristin identified urban sprawl and school closures as two of the big challenges our city is facing. These may seem unrelated, but they are continued symptoms of the same problem. Everything is interconnected, and as Michael said, we cannot continue to make decisions in “stovepipes”.
