Community Living is an organization that is close to my heart.
My friend Glen McClughan, the executive director of Sunshine Coast Association for Community Living (SCACL), is a great guy. He never ceases to advocate for the people he serves and the people SCACL employs. And he never fails to credit an outstanding board of directors whose farsightedness has made SCACL a success.
Last Thursday was a good example of Glen's efforts at inclusion for the developmentally delayed adults SCACL serves. He and program co-ordinator Christie Totten organized a meet-and-greet for the Sechelt civic electoral hopefuls and his clients. They handed out information sheets to the would-be politicians and the one incumbent, Alice Lutes, who spared the time to attend the groundbreaking event.
Some of the information was strictly factual. For instance, most of us don't know that SCACL has an annual food budget of $49,000 per year, money that goes directly into our local economy. Or that the society has a payroll of $1.4 million per year - again badly needed dollars that go directly into the economy of the Sunshine Coast. And perhaps the biggest eye opener of all is the $2.2 million in annual revenue SCACL realizes. That's a lot of bucks being poured back into our economy.
So I think inclusion and everything else aside, the dollars alone were a good reason for the budding council members to learn more about this important organization.
Not surprisingly, this group is very dependent on public transportation. While that's not a municipal responsibility, it seems to me that with all the contacts local politicians make at the provincial table, perhaps they could use some of their clout to get bus service to the Sandy Hook/Tuwanek area. A full 54 per cent of SCACL participants use the bus system to get to and from their worksites. The other 33 per cent walk, and 13 per cent are driven.
Nothing is worse than being isolated, and when you're part of a group that does not have the wherewithal to afford a vehicle or the ability to drive, it might just seem like the rest of society really doesn't care.
Lest you think SCACL participants are the only people impacted by the lack of public transportation, guess again. Only 17 per cent of SCACL employees have wages that exceed the $18.80 per hour that the recent Vital Signs report identified as being a living wage. As Glen said in a recent meeting, for most of the SCACL workers, what they do isn't a job, it's a calling. Given the high cost of living on the Sunshine Coast, a car is but a distant dream for many of the SCACL workers.
It was a delight to see some of the would-be councillors grilled on their stand on Walmart coming to the Coast. Unlike the many Coast residents who already take their shopping to the big box stores "overseas", the SCACL participants rarely have that opportunity. For them it would make a lot of sense to have affordable goods in their own backyard. For people who live on $906 a month, it would go a long way to providing some of life's necessities.
For folks who want to be full partners in our society - working, volunteering and playing -voting locally is the logical next step. Congratulations to SCACL and those running in this important election for realizing that.
