Heather Latter
Despite the looming loss of funding for the Rainy River District Substance Abuse Prevention Team (SAPT), the board of directors has vowed to do everything it can in order to continue their work here.
“What we decided, as a board, is we felt the program is so important to the district and communities that we would make every effort and attempt to continue the Rainy River Substance Abuse Prevention Team,” said board chair Cst. Pete LeDrew of the CN Police.
The local SAPT had been funded for the past 11 years as one of the province’s 22 FOCUS community projects, with programs working to prevent injury and reduce harm as it relates to alcohol and other drug use, as well as raising awareness of alcohol as a risk factor in chronic disease.
But due to a new funding model under the “Healthy Communities Ontario” approach, which recently was introduced by the Ministry of Health Promotion, the contracts to fund the FOCUS community projects will not be renewed beyond March 31.
“There are efforts and work being done to continue the Rainy River District Substance Abuse Prevention Team after March 31 even though it will be without a co-ordinator,” said current co-ordinator Hugh Dennis.
While about half of the current funding was allotted for programming, the other half has gone towards the salary of the co-ordinator, in this case Dennis, who has overseen all of the local partnerships and programs.
The SAPT board is confident it can find funding for programming elsewhere, but there won’t be any funds for a full-time co-ordinator.
“We’re applying for funding to keep the program sustainable at this time,” Cst. LeDrew noted. “As opposed to having our monthly meetings, we’ve pretty much been meeting once a week and putting our heads together.
“So what we’re doing is we’re looking at keeping the board and the group together without a co-ordinator, in the hopes of finding other funding in order to have a part-time co-ordinator,” he continued.
“And also to keep our website going to let everyone out there know that we still exist.”
Cst. LeDrew explained the SAPT has teamed up with the Rainy River District Community Policing Committee and plans to work under its umbrella.
“The Northwestern Health Unit was a big partner that we did have, and will continue to have, but they facilitated the funding,” he said.
“But now with the Community Policing Committee and falling under that umbrella, and also working with the [Rainy River Valley] safety coalition, we’re going to be working in partnership with them, as well.”
Cst. LeDrew maintained the SAPT will continue with the different projects it has initiated and sponsored.
“The hope is that when we acquire some funding, we would bring in someone on a contract basis that would be available to do presentations on behalf of the Substance Abuse Prevention Team throughout the district,” he remarked, adding they also plan to continue to offer funds to certain programs as in years past.
“So, again, we’re going to be looking at other avenues to obtain funding and continue funding different things like ‘chem-free’ grad and other things,” Cst. LeDrew indicated.
“We have a few successful programs, like the Photo Voice project and P.A.R.T.Y. program, that have become self-sustainable, so through other funding and sponsors, those programs will continue.
“A lot of projects like that we’ll still throw our support behind,” he stressed.
Cst. LeDrew also said the board would be setting up an e-mail account so those who have questions or concerns will be able to contact them.
“We’ll have either myself or another board member checking the e-mails and responding to any of the community needs,” he pledged.
The SAPT board also has been getting some outside assistance to apply for the grants that are available.
“Instead of having the funding that we did, we’ll have to basically apply for it and that’s why we want to keep the board and our partners together in order to put our heads together and apply for some of these grants with help from other community members,” he explained.
The SAPT has a strong partnership with more than 60 area businesses, institutions, and organizations and would like to continue working with the groups.
In a recent press release, Dennis indicated the SAPT has a proud legacy of working with local coalitions to provide health promotion and prevention programming based on local community needs.
“We have become experts at doing much with little,” the release stated.
“The FOCUS sites have consistently achieved a return on the government’s investment of more than 200 percent through the in-kind support of local businesses, organizations, and individuals.
“In the present economy, that’s quite an accomplishment,” it noted.
Dennis said local communities have been strong supporters of the prevention efforts.
“This was evident in the more than 300 letters and 3,000 signatures sent to the Minister of Health Promotion in 2008 illustrating how instrumental FOCUS has been at the local level,” he remarked.
“To quote one letter, ‘The Rainy River District Focus programs are important components of comprehensive health promotion programming for the communities.’”
Cst. LeDrew said while he doesn’t want to see Dennis and the co-ordinator position let go, the board wants to do whatever it can to continue to meet the needs of the local communities.
“When you had someone like Hugh Dennis, who has done so much work and put his heart and soul into the community for substance abuse prevention, you would hate to see the program suddenly go away,” he said.
“You can’t say enough about all the hard work he’s done. He’s been a definite asset to the community and we hope he’ll still be around and available.”
Cst. LeDrew stressed he doesn’t want people to think the SAPT is going to be gone.
“We’re going to hang in there and keep doing what we’re doing the best we can,” he vowed.
