KARLA HENNIG, BEVERLEY LUTES: Hired just before budget: slashed for Women's Resource

Centre, °

Women’s Centre maps
out survival plan

In the wake of federal funding
cuts, the Terrace Women’s
Resource Centre held an emerg-
ency meeting recently to decide
the fate of the center.

by Betty Barton

_,. Board president Carol Sabo

- reviewed the federal government’s
budget announcement that the core
funding for all women’s centers in
Canada had been eliminated. She
pointed out that the $1.6 million of
core funding cancelled is equal to
_ the amount allocated to purchase
fireworks for the Canada Day
celebration in Ottawa this year.
The center is currently staffed
with two employees who work 20
hours per week and a bookkeeper
that works about 15 hours a
month. By the end of this fiscal
year -- March 31 -- the center will
have $10,000 left, a budget that
could allow it to remain open for
six months if the staff is cut to one
and supplemented with volunteer
help.

. Wage cuts are out of the question
because the paid staff are unioni-
zed. Coordinator Karla Hennig
remarked, "All sorts of people
have come out of the woodwork to
offer their support, either in the
form of volunteer time or fund-
raising activities." .

’. Access’ to the center itself has
flo become an ‘issue. The building

“son Park Ave., leased Troi the city”

for a dollar a year, is used on a
weekly basis. by. seven different
groups, bi-weekly by three groups,
and monthly by another five. In
addition, many programs are
offered during the day.

Ulilities and operating expenses
require $245, Sabo said, and
although the center holds the nom-

inal lease for another two years
minor repairs to the building are
the responsibility of the society.

"We have to go away from this
: meeting wilh a direction," those
‘present agreed, .

After discussion a final plan was
approved:
*Try to keep the center open for
another six months beginning April
1, with one part-time paid staff
member to run programs, look
after fund-raising activities, work-

~ shops,advocacy. and- lobbying, and -
coordinate volunteers. Volunteers

will be asked to do reception
work, public relations, clerical
tasks and other duties.
*Investigate the possibility of ac-
quiring revenue through renting
one room in the building to a
group "in tune" with the Women’s
Resource Centre, a matter that
would require examination of the
lease terms.

eWrite to all resource center mem-
bers, community groups and user
groups to inform them of the
short-term plan and ask for their
support and advise.

*As a first-step fund-raiser, design
a poster to illustrate the purpose
and need for women’s centers,
distribute the posters throughout
the region and begin a pledge
campaign to raise operating funds.

The staff noted that they would

like to hear from anyone who has
suggestions for fund-raising or
lobbying. The group is encourag-
ing anyone who supports women’s
centers to express their concems
over budget cuts by writing to
federal Justice Minister Kim
Campbell, Finance Minister
Michael Wilson and Prime Minis-
ter Brian Mulroney.

Ironically, the week before the
budget announcement, Beverley
Lutes was hired as the new ad-
ministrator of the Terrace
Women’s Resource Centre. Her
responsibilities were to include
looking after finances and sear-
ching out funding for proposed
projects and ideas for work-
shops. Lutes and Women’s Cen-
tre coordinator Karla Hennig
would work together doing lay
counselling, referrals and ad-

vocacy. Their. responsibilities, -

including the running of the cen-
tre and booking activities would
be complementary, and both
were looking forward to a pro-
ductive working relationship.
Lutes’s hope was ‘‘to bring
women back to the Centre.’’ She
explains that they’re ‘trying to
get'away from ‘that did Women’s
Centre stereotype. ‘“We’re here
for every woman’’, she adds.
She moved to Terrace from
the lower mainland in Septem-
ber 1988, to attend Northwest
Community College. She has
since completed the Human Ser-
vice Worker program and has
been working at the Ministry of
Social Services in Kitimat and
Karla Hennig has been coor-
dinator of the Terrace Women’s
Resource Centre since Decem-
ber. Hennig has a varied back-
ground, with a B.A. in History
and communications, and a
minor in Fine Arts; she taught
music, theater and stage craft in
Prince George and Kitimat.
Karla thinks of herself as a

feminist and a moderate, and a —

lover of island living, after three
years on the Queen Charlotte Is-
lands, with her husband
Graham.

Hennig’s impression of the
Women’s Centre after her few
months there ts that it has a
good grounding in the social ser-
vices, and in providing informa-
tion and referrals to people.

Both Hennig and Lutes would
like to see the Centre expand to
encompass more creative and
educational needs of the com-
munity.

On March 8 the Terrace

‘Women’s Resource Centre held

an open house to honor Inter-
national Women’s Day. They
drew members and non-mem-
bers alike to help celebrate.
They'd like to encourage teens,
housewives, working women
and their families to come out

and find out what the Women’s
Centre is all about. Both women

agree, "We're trying to give ‘the
Centre a new life."

Terrace Review — Wednesday; March 21,- 1990 BT
Local group makes
global connections

Last week, Women in
Development met to discuss plans
for 1990. The organization was
founded in Terrace in the spring of
1987, as a way of getting directly
involved with concems of women
worldwide and a response to
efforis women were already
making for themselves. It was a
chance to do something concrete,
explained Lori Merrill, one of the
founding members.

Since its inception, Terrace’s
Women in Development program
has sponsored two third-world
women's projects, with the
assistance of MATCH, a CIDA
funded, non-government
organization. MATCH is an
international centre matching
women’s needs and resources in
Canada and the third world, CIDA
siands for Canadian International
Development Association. For a
year, they sponsored a women’s
agriculture co-op in Peru, through
fundraising events. These included
a Latin American night and raffle.
Although the event was not well
attended, members acknowledge
that it connected them with the
Latin American community in the
northwest.

More recently, (in the spring of
1988), they sponsored Tsogang
Textiles, a small women’s group in
Mahalapye, Botswana. Tsogang
Textiles was formed to begin
producing garments as an income
generating project. And to meet the
need for school uniforms in the
area, Prior to their existence, all
school uniforms had to be
purchased from the cities at a
much greater expense, both in the
cost of the garments and in
transportation required to purchase
the uniforms.

The textile group provided their
own financing and paid wages out
of their profits. The seven women
in the group have been selling
garments at a rate of $400 to $800
Canadian per month. They do not
view outside support as a subsidy,
but as a capital investment to
permit expansion.

Terrace’s Women in
Development, a core group of ten
women, raised more than one
thousand seven hundred dollars to
send to Tsogang Textiles. They
had a group garage sale; a silent
raffle at the United Church’s
Christmas Bazaar;they have run
the Farmers’ Market Xmas Fair
concession to raise money AND
promote nutrition; they do Sears
catalogue distribution, and on-
going contracts for housecleaning
, home repairs, or raking leaves.

The money they raise is
*matched’ three to one by the
CIDA sponsored MATCH
organization in Ottawa. Then, the
total amount is forwarded to the
sponsoring organization in the
third world country or Canada.
The Botswana textile company
received $7,100 from the combined
efforts of Terrace’s Women in
Development and MATCH. The
Terrace group. will continue to
sponsor the Botswana sewing
cooperative and hope to soon get
an update on their progress.

MATCH and its affiliated
organizations could start to look at
local development projects,
especially in light of recent Federal
budget cuts.

One member of Women in
Development in Terrace pointed
out, "We shouldn’t jump in too
quickly to take up the slack from
government. We live in an affluent
society and we should be able to
support groups like women’s
centres, from our tax dollars."

Another member countered with
"We should consider problems in
our own backyard, too. It’s a
difficult choice to make - which
local programs to support. We
have all benefited from the
resources and meetings at our local
Women’s Centre."

If anyone is interested in joining
Terrace’s Women in Development,
has ideas for worthwhile projects
or would like to make a donation,
phone 635-2436 or write to Box
207, Terrace, V8G 4A6.

L

McALPINE&CO. |
CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS

‘“Parsonal Tax Professional”

Personal tax return preparation
Personal tax and financial planning

We can prepare your personal
tax return and advise you how
to minimize the tax bite.

Call us today
635-4925

Alan McAlpine, C.A. Res. 638-0429

Howard Pruner, C.A. Res. 635-7987 | —
J.B. Riding, C.A. Res. 635-6862

Craig Mills, C.A. Res. 635-3078

4634 Lazelle Avenue, Terrace
(2nd Floor - Manpower Building) _|