Agency worker chips in to help United Way

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Winnipeg Free Press, Monday December 17, 2007
Reproduced with permission.
Photo: Ken Gigliotti/Winnipeg Free Press

FROM the outside, it looks like just another building on Selkirk Avenue. But inside those red brick walls, you begin to sense the hope and encouragement it gives to so many young people in Winnipeg.

Bernice Getty, a programs manager at the Ndinawe Youth Resource Centre, sees the impact it has every day.

"Kids who can never ever play sports get to play hockey," Getty said. "Kids who have nowhere to sleep tonight will have somewhere to sleep."

Investments

It's one of the reasons why over the years she has given to the United Way, which has made significant investments at Ndinawe.
Getty said the United Way is often the first funding partner to sign on to new initiatives, like the gang-prevention program they are rolling out soon.

"Without United Way money, it wouldn't really be possible," she said.

This year Getty decided to step up to the leadership level of donating to the organization.

At first she was a little overwhelmed at the thought of donating $1,200, but she broke it down to the cost per hour that she's at work.

"It's only 57 cents an hour. That's really not a lot of money," she said.

For 57 cents an hour, she's helping agencies like Ndinawe, which offers so many different things to young people through its transitional high school, 16-bed safe home, 12 apartment units and the resource centre.

"This centre really is a shining light," Getty said.

The centre is open five nights a week, offering free recreation, a full arts program and access to cultural workers.

It also strives to meet the most basic needs by offering hot meals and access to phones and laundry machines.
"That's what my 57 cents invests in," she said.

"These are kids that everybody else has kind of given up on. But they know they can come to Ndinawe because nobody's going to give up on them here."

Getty knows firsthand the difference the United Way can make in a person's life.

"My journey began at a United Way-funded agency."

She said she lived on the streets for about three years as a teenager after spending most of her childhood as a ward of Child and Family Services.

"If it weren't for their help, I wouldn't be here today," Getty said.

She hopes more Winnipeggers will sign on to the Leadership Challenge issued by 10 prominent Winnipeggers who will donate an extra $250,000 to the United Way's poverty-reduction strategies if 2,150 people donate at the leadership level.

So far, more than 1,700 Winnipeggers have stepped up to the challenge.

"I would challenge every single person to throw in their 57 cents an hour. Let's make that $1,200 a year each," Getty said.