GREENSTONE – During Monday’s regular meeting on March 11, council decided to enter into a partnership with United for Literacy to open up to three summer camps in Geraldton, Nakina, and Longlac.
The municipality will be donating $17,100 to United for Literacy for the free use of space to run summer literacy camps upon signing a lease agreement and provision of proof of insurance.
Ideally, the municipality would like to have the summer programming in all three wards, however staffing issues might reduce the number of United for Literacy camps that will open.
Each location would cost approximately $4,800 for the space and $900 for employee costs.
Councillor Elaine Mannisto expressed concern about partnering with a third-party organization to facilitate summer programming when the municipality hasn’t been able to operate recreational youth programming due to a lack of interested youth volunteers.
“I understand that the camp ads in other years have not been very successful. I'm also aware that some of the programming wasn't top of the list. Because there hasn't been a response to the ads for the last year or two, I don't like to just eliminate the option of the playgroups being run by the municipality with summer students,” said Mannisto.
Although the motion that council put forward was to decide if the municipality would donate the space and cover the employee cost, Mannisto asked a poignant question: where does United for Literacy get its funding from?
United for Literacy is a not-for-profit Canadian literacy organization that aims to improve literacy levels for Canadians with a wide variety of literacy programs geared towards children, youth and adults. The Summer Literacy Camps historically incorporate reading and learning into fun games and activities, field trips, and discussions with guests from the community.
United for Literacy obtains its funding primarily through donations. According to the United for Literacy website, its top donors are provincial governments such as Alberta, Nunavut and Ontario, Kativik Ilisarniliriniq School Board in Nunavut, and TD Bank Group.
Chief administrative officer Mark Wright acknowledged that over the last few years the municipality has found it difficult to find youth volunteers to run summer camps. However, entering into a partnership with United for Literacy would eliminate some of the municipality’s concerns.
One concern is that additional funding such as advertising will not come from the municipality.
Economic development and communications officer Haley Garvie said the municipality does not intend to spend on advertisement for the program.
Wright also pointed out that administration would still be looking at other organizations to deliver summer programming.
However, Mannisto doubled down on the question of staffing. Recognizing that the municipality would not be responsible for staffing, her main concern is if nobody is applying to volunteer, why would this program be different?
Councillor Alan Ouellet feels having United for Literacy operate the program instead of the municipality “might spark some interest and actually inspire some of the youth to take part in the services.”
But Mannisto said that a camp run by United for Literacy would only draw volunteers who are into literacy.
Out of the nine councillors, five voted in favour of partnering with United for Literacy and the motion was passed.
