United Way tour an eye-opener for JRI staff

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Winnipeg Free Press, Thursday October 25, 2007
Reproduced with permission.
Photo: WAYNE GLOWACKI/Winnipeg Free Press

IT probably doesn't matter to Dion Knol that his name is spoken admiringly in some corporate suites high atop the skyscrapers of Portage and Main.

Knol works about 15 minutes and a world away from those office towers at the Andrews Street Family Centre in the heart of the toughest streets of the North End.

The 12-year-old community-owned and run family resource centre is an island of safety and compassion, helping many people in that neighborhood who are struggling.

Knol has worked at the centre since it began in 1995 and clearly provides a disproportionate amount of love and compassion compared to the rest of humanity.

Earlier this week he gave a gracious and funny tour of the bustling little centre that in its long past also served as a residence for railroad workers, a synagogue and a wool factory.

A group of about 30 employees from James Richardson International head office visited Andrews Street as well as Mamawiwichiitata Centre and Rossbrook House in a tour organized by JRI and the United Way.

Workers at National Leasing have done the same thing in the past and United Way officials are trying to encourage more companies to allow staff to get out and see how their donations are put to use figuring, rightly, that it might create a more compelling reason to continue to give.

Even though it was first thing in the morning, Andrews Street Family Centre was pretty busy with people washing their clothes in the centre's washer and drier, some older folks playing cribbage and a group of young children taking an aboriginal heritage class.

Andrews Street is careful to register the folks who use the centre and it has almost as many children regularly through its doors as the elementary school across the street.

The centre offers every manner of lifestyle support -- free meals, the use of telephone and Internet, washer and drier, baby-sitting, a free clothing depot, a casual meeting place and it operates a popular youth drop-in operation.

Despite the conscientious level of cleanliness and the good spirits of staff, it was also clear that Andrews Street could use any manner of additional resources and help.

Some of the JRI staffers had never traversed the streets between Rossbrook, Andrews Street and Mamawiwichiitata on McGregor. Most give to the United Way and have a general sense of the kind of agencies United Way funds.

One of them, receptionist Kathleen Best, figured out after the fact that she availed herself of the services of some United Way agencies as a single mother with four boys.
But not surprisingly, it seemed clear that just about everyone on the tour was somehow touched.

"We think it is important to get people out of their comfort zones," said Hartley Richardson, the CEO of the family owned firm. "When they see the young people in those agencies instilling self-esteem and hope in the children... they get it."

At JRI, the entire head office staff is "required to volunteer" for a United Way tour.

Both Richardson and National Leasing's CEO Nick Logan are former United Way campaign chairs. Kate Taylor manager of media relations and communications at United Way said they want to encourage more local businesses to do more of this sort of thing.

And its not a matter of allowing these community agencies to more prominently wave a cap in hand.

Dion Knol did not talk about money at all. He proudly recounted how a few years ago a grass-roots uprising of centre members ousted some former board members who wanted to develop money-making enterprises at the centre.

Knol comes by his love for the underdog honestly. His own story of how the kindness and compassion of a stranger saved his life is one for the ages.

Hartley Richardson knows Dion Knol's story.

He encourages his staff to think about charitable activities as an investment in community building. And just like any other kinds of investment the pay-off is far greater when you start early.