Survival of the fittest.
It's an old adage and a familiar one. Its meaning, however, is often misapplied and misunderstood.
New research, explains Lea Smirfitt, executive co-ordinator of the South Cariboo Community Planning Council (SCCPC), shows it's not the individual accomplishments or efforts of one person that sustains a community, but the co-operative and cohesive effort of people that propels it forward.
The type of community Smirfitt and members of the SCCPC look to promote is one that is healthy, safe and inclusive.
“That's the community I want to live in,” Smirfitt says. “The community works together as a team and that makes a huge difference in how people feel supported.”
The SCCPC, an umbrella organization that includes diverse service providers and organizations, has in one form or another been working towards community-based solutions for nearly 25 years.
The original vision for the organization came to be when Smirfitt was going through a personal health crisis years ago.
Smirfitt, who has multiple sclerosis, says she had a serious flare up and had to rely on other people to help her through that difficult time and help her gather different kinds of information.
“I immediately recognized everything was quite scattered and disjointed.
“At the same time, the Canadian Mental Health Association was doing an assessment of how to better support people and said we need to have a collaborative, one stop (resource for community information).”
In its early beginnings in December 1989, the group was known as the “Community Resource Team.”
The SCCPC became a non-profit society in 2007 and today membership is the highest it's ever been. So are the recipients in the e-mail broadcast and attendance at monthly planning meetings, while the group's monthly newsletter – “Well on the Way” – is a central resource that raises awareness of community services and training opportunities provided in the South Cariboo.
The stated goals of the organization centre around: strengthening relationships and communication between service providers in the area; promoting information about community resources; and advocating for services that promote the health, safety and sense of belonging for people living in the South Cariboo.
In a report updated in 2011, the group acknowledges food security, domestic violence, housing and homelessness and employment as four essential issues to focus on.
Membership includes stakeholders from a variety of groups. including social, economic, First Nations, health, culture, education and recreation.
“We do our best to bring this model into the different sectors, so we understand each other rather than stand alone.”
For secretary Diana Badke, the group was a “godsend” when she reached out to them as a literacy outreach co-ordinator when she was new to the community seven years ago.
“We have good representation from really all the service providers,” Badke says, adding another goal is to pool resources and avoid unnecessary duplication with respect to offering services.
“Through a collaborative process we try to identify what needs to be done, who has resources to help and who is in the best position to lead the process and get the job done."
Funding for the SCCPC comes from the Cariboo Regional District, District of 100 Mile House, newsletter sponsors, membership dues and donations in kind.
At one time, the group received funding from the Ministry of Children & Family Development, but that stopped in June 2012. Money is tight everywhere at the provincial level and it tends to prioritize funding for direct service providers, Smirfitt explains.
“Community development tends to fall between the cracks because we're not seen as a direct service. The fact that one organization knows what another organization is doing and we prevent people from falling through the cracks of services, that's a real hard sell when someone is looking at direct service delivery.
“Yet the feedback we get tells us this is essential to the relationships between organizations and service provision.”
The SCCPC will be applying for a government gaming grant this year, after applying last year and not receiving one. At a recent meeting in 100 Mile House, group members talked about operating on a “shoestring” budget.
“We desperately need to replace what we spent doing what we do,” Badke says.
Smirfitt estimates half her work is volunteer.
“But, we've survived where other organizations haven't and we've never had access to a huge pot of money. I think that speaks to the community saying this is valuable and we're going to make it work one way or the other.”
