Cindy MacDougall
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 15/00) - Storefront's new focus on volunteer training while dumping the rest of its services may not be a perfect choice, but it will keep the agency afloat.

Denise Bekkema, Storefront for Voluntary Agency's executive director, said the decision to set up a volunteer centre this spring was mainly a financial one.

"A lack of funding has compelled us to drop programs that are not financially feasible," she said. "It was a difficult choice, but there was money for volunteer (training) services and a lot of our member agencies want and use the volunteer services."

Last year, Storefront received more than $382,000 in funding. Most of that, $319,000, came in the form of one-time program grants.

The agency is down to $73,000 for the upcoming fiscal year. Bekkema said that cut led to the cuts and the new focus.

"We have to concentrate on the services that are funded," she said.

The volunteer centre will work as a recruitment and training centre for people interested in becoming a volunteer, Bekkema said.

Storefront will train them and find out about their skills and interests, then match volunteers up with the 249 agencies in Yellowknife that need people with those skills.

The centre will also be home base for Yellowknife's Youth Volunteer Corps. The national program encourages young people to create and lead their own public service projects.

Bekkema said Storefront already offers both these programs.

"The centre will allow us to provide better service because we will be able to focus all our energy on volunteer services and the Youth Volunteer Corps," Bekkema said.

The project will be funded by Storefront's annual core grant of $63,000 from Yellowknife Health and Social Services.

A $10,000 city grant for the Youth Volunteer Corps will keep that program afloat and an integral part of the new centre.

Although Bekkema is excited about the new centre, she says abandoning some of Storefront's past services worries her.

"It's disappointing for me as executive director to be moving away from services such as staff training and advocacy (for non-profit groups)," she said. "The other services were outdated or somebody else is picking them up. These may not be."

Bekkema said advocating for Northern charities is especially important in a place like Yellowknife, where the majority of donations go to national groups.

"That's what the Donate North campaign was all about," she said. "They (national charities) certainly deserve donations, but we need to find a balance between national and local groups."

But Storefront will no longer do that job.

"One single employee can only do so much."