Workplace campaign takes to the streets
October 23, 2007 | Community News | Archive 2007
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Kathleen Best knows first-hand how her campaign donation works in our community; nevertheless, when her workplace offered a United Way partner organization tour, she was first on the bus.
Agency tours are a unique opportunity for campaign donors to see, first hand, the kind of impact their dollars have...and do a little soul searching.
This is the second year that Best's workplace, James Richardson International Ltd. (JRI), has participated and it's a workplace campaign model they'd like to see adopted across the city. In 2006, it resulted in a 28 per cent increase in employee giving and participation increased by 11 per cent.
"In the first year, some employees wondered what this was all about," says Curt Vossen, JRI Ltd., President. "Now there's a kind of buzz about going, like a high school field trip."
It's 8:30 a.m. on the frosty morning of October 22nd and 43 JRI employees file into an old yellow school-bus to tour three United Way partner organizations. The stark interior resonates with excited chatter.
Each agency provides staff facilitators who talk about their work in the community and share their personal experiences.
Dion Knol, works at Andrew's Street Family Centre and guides JRI employees through the agency. At the end of the tour he takes a seat on a pool table.
"I grew up in this neighbourhood," he says. "I wanted to have money and be someone and the way I thought to achieve that was by dealing drugs."
A bad deal and an addiction led him to the brink of despair. A first desperate attempt to end his life failed, but Dion was determined to try again. As he made his way to the river with a chain and cement block in hand, he came upon United Way partner Rossbrook House.
He'd hung out there a couple of times as a kid and paused on the steps. As Dion sat there considering what he was about to do, a chance encounter changed his fate.
"If it wasn't for Rossbrook House being there, I wouldn't have stopped," he says. "United Way saved my life."
Now Dion works with inner-city youth through The Pritchard Place Drop-in Centre, the fulfillment of a promise he says he made to pay back the kindness and understanding he was shown.
"People call me a hero," he tells the JRI employees. "But you guys are the heroes because you support United Way."
The air is palpably different on the bus as the group returns to the office. Contemplative silence yields to earnest conversation.
"I was a mother of four earning six dollars an hour when my husband left us," says Best. "It was a very difficult time in my life. These tours made a connection for me when I realized the supports I'd used were thanks to United Way."
Kristine Myers, a new JRI employee, gave to United Way campaigns in her last workplace. This is her first tour. "It makes me feel fortunate for what I have," she says. "There is more I could do. It makes me feel like I want to make a real difference."
As JRI's staff return to work, Hartley Richardson, President of James Richardson & Sons is sitting in the corner office 30 stories above the intersection of Portage and Main. This vantage point affords a remarkably complete view of the city, as do his values.
"One way or another, United Way touches all of our lives," he says. "Nobody remains un-affected by this experience. It is not a matter of donating to some charity. This is an investment in our community."
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