CAHRD funding decision kills women's training program

OWN joins growing list of groups forced to abandon ACW

By Len Kruzenga

The trickle of disaffected aboriginal organization that have packed up their bags and left the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg during the last two years-and out from under the control of the Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg (ACW) and its brood of affiliated organizational offspring-is growing.

The Original Women's Network (OWN), an aboriginal women's organization formed long before the ACW was even a gleam in anyone's political eye has announced that one of its most successful client services programs-Ikewak Anokiiwaad Training Program-will cease operation at the end of March.

The decision came, say OWN board members, after the Centre for Aboriginal Human Resource Development (CAHRD) informed the founding ACW group it's funding had been slashed.
The program, established to assist aboriginal women, mostly single mothers, gain modern office skills and secure credible and stable employment, has an enviable track record of success with many graduates finding work with MPIC and other major organizations
The training program has assisted over 100 aboriginal women find stable employment in career fields that offer opportunities for real advancement, according to board member Diane Roussin.

The move by CAHRD has effectively forced OWN to cease operating temporarily, according to two of its most prominent and active board members, Michelle Boivin and Diane Roussin.
"They (CAHRD) cloak their mandate and objectives in all sorts of pleasant sounding words and phrases such as "capacity building" "supporting community organizations" and "expanding employment opportunities for aboriginal people," but our training program has shown clear and positive results for years and now they drop this bombshell on us," said Boivin. "The funding criteria for our program has never been clear, it's always verbal and always subject to change and reinterpretation."

OWN executive director Sandy Funk says the transition by Human Resource Development Canada to turn over responsibility for the delivery of funding for Aboriginal Human Resource Development to CAHRD has in effect placed groups such as OWN in direct competition with CAHRD for funding.

"CAHRD has been establishing its own organizations and initiatives and as the group also responsible for doling out the funding dollars it's a definite conflict of interest."
That assessment is backed up others, including Gabrielle Duffault, a former executive director of the Aboriginal Business Development Centre (ABDC), which also operated out of the Aboriginal Centre until it could no longer secure funding.

"When I was there we worked towards establishing an independent board because there were a lot of people serving on the ABDC board that were from CAHRD.

"We had reapplied to the Western Economic Diversification Fund. We did our own fundraising and organized entrepreneurial training in a bid to keep ABDC going.

"In our training program we started off with 10 kids off of the street. Nine graduated and three started self-employment while the other six all found employment. We were able to succeed because we did one to one mentoring and at the end we were totally independent and had people on our board that weren't associated with the ACW and were independently professional and credible.

"Some people at CAHRD didn't like our independence and resented it and made sure not to support our efforts to keep the ABDC open and get our funding renewed."

Duffault says the environment within the ACW and CAHRD has become primarily and acquiring funding dollars at the expense of grassroots organizations that have successfully implemented real working programs for urban aboriginal peopls.

"When our office closed much of the office furniture and equipment ended up at the Social Planning Council offices, at the ACW offices and at the CAHRD offices.

"How did this happen when these things were funded and paid for by the WED fund. Why isn't anyone looking into that?

Duffault noted that he also sat on the CAHRD funding commissioning board and said far too much of the funding given to CAHRD by HRDC is allotted to the organization's own programming.

"In my view, I sat on the CAHRD commissioning body, too much of the pot is going to their own programming. They're really not helping the community.

"I would like to see a study on how many organizations have died because of funding. There was Manitoba Organization of Native Languages, the Ganitoomagge Justice Services. Beat the Streets. The Metis Horticultural Society, Aboriginal Business Development Center and now OWN and there were many more that were forced to leave the Aboriginal Centre because they refused to let CAHRD control their programs and services.

"I'm convinced the ACW and CAHRD are really self-serving. Where is the transpartency and the accountability? It's the same people controlling everything there from the ACW, CAHRD and the Social Planning Council. It stinks.