Peggy Revell
The merger between the region’s Children’s Aid Societies is moving ahead now that provincial funding has been confirmed.
While April 1 was the original merger deadline between Kenora-Patricia Child and Family Services and Family and Children’s Services of the District of Rainy River, the process was stalled as the agencies waited for the province to officially say it would finance both FAC’s deficit and debt, as well as amalgamation costs.
This was a requirement before Kenora’s agency would agree to the amalgamation.
But last week, the Ministry of Children and Youth Services officially informed both agencies that these costs will be covered, meaning the new combined agency will start out debt-free.
“Both agencies are excited that the end toward our new beginning is near fruition,” Bill Leonard, executive director of the KPCFS and Vic Nowak, Executive director of FACS, said in a news release issued on behalf of both agencies last Friday.
With this funding secured, the two agencies now can proceed with formal board motions affirming their intentions to amalgamate, then signing and submitting the required legal documents to various regulatory authorizes for approval.
This process should take six-eight weeks.
The new organization will be known as Kenora-Rainy River Districts Child and Family Services.
Its logo, vision mission, and value statements also were unveiled last Thursday—the culmination of months of work by amalgamation committees made up of people from both organizations.
“Like any good logo, the more you look at it, the more you see,” FACS board president Bob McGreevy said in explaining the meaning behind the new logo.
As a way to reflect the “geographical reality” of the organizations, the logo has a tree motif with three leaves on a branch in various shades—with the leaves also representing people with outstretched arms and circles as their heads.
The three leaves also represent the three branches of the new agency: family services, children’s services, and clinical/community services.
And with “such a long name,” the new logo features “Child and Family” as the largest focus, with Kenora-Rainy River Districts/Services in smaller fonts.
Meanwhile, the organization’s new vision statement will be “Children and families reaching their full potential,” with their mission statement to be, “We are dedicated to ensuring the safety and well-being of every child by providing effective services to children and families.”
The outlined values for the organization include positive attitude, relationships, integrity, diversity, and excellence.
“Even though the vision, mission, and values remain words on paper, they’re aspiring words but words nonetheless,” Leonard said at the unveiling.
“So as we move forward as one organization, it will be incumbent on each of us working on within the new organization to bring life into these words, to ensure that they are a true reflection of our beliefs and that they will guide how we will provide service,” he stressed.
“We must prove this to be so through our individual efforts, through our work with each other, and, most importantly, through our work with the children, families, and communities to whom we are ultimately accountable,” Leonard added.
There will be no cuts to frontline staff or services with the merger.
The move to amalgamate came after FACS, along with dozens of Children’s Aid Societies across the province, faced deficits ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions in the 2009-10 financial year.
FACS, itself, faced a deficit of just over $600,000 before receiving one-time mitigation funding of $430,000 from the province back in February, 2010.
In an interview this past fall, McGreevy said the total estimated deficit and amalgamation costs are $900,000.
The amalgamation also will mean a combined budget of $17 million—$12 million from the KPCFS, $3 million in funding for the child welfare portion of FACS’ child welfare in Rainy River District, and $2 million for FACS’ integrated services (i.e., children’s mental health).
Once merged, there will be an estimated annual savings of $400,000 due to “economy of scale” kicking in as costs—such as administrative ones, which are more burdensome on smaller agencies like FACS—would be reduced.
An estimated 250 children will be under the care of the new organization.
The combined staffing levels are estimated to be at 250 full-time and 100 casual workers.
Leonard will remain on as executive director, with FACS’ executive director Nowak becoming director of service for the new organization.
