CREWS CLEAN UP YARD PAGE 4
ABORIGINAL DAY FEATURE SECTION B
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MERRITT HERALD FREE
THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2012 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
MSS awards night cancelled By Phillip Woolgar THE HERALD
reporter@merrittherald.com
Due to a sudden grant loss, Nicola Family Therapy will be closing its doors on Fridays as of June 30. Board member Sue Sterling and agency director Sheri Bishop say the cut will mean the agency will service 20 to 30 less individuals and families. Volunteers and staff are kicking off a fundraising campaign to make up for the lost revenue. Jade Swartzberg/Herald
Nicola Family Therapy loses grant, cuts hours By Jade Swartzberg THE HERALD
newsroom@merrittherald.com
Nicola Family Therapy will be forced to cut its hours at the end of June due to the loss of a $35,000 annual contract. The cut means the office won’t open on Fridays after June 30, and the agency will service 20 to 30 less individuals and families. “We had depended on this contract, which has been in place since 1996,� said Sue Sterling a volunteer member of the Nicola Family Therapy Board of Directors. “We found out at the end of May and we were quite shocked.� Nicola Family Therapy is a nonprofit society that offers confidential family and individual therapy to
people to help break the cycle of violence in homes and relationships. Besides the lost local contract, Nicola Family Therapy operates with three larger contracts through government ministries that allow the local non-profit organization to provide counselling at no cost to the community and surrounding area. However, Agency Director Sheri Bishop said there will be families or individuals that won’t qualify for free service with the loss. “There just aren’t many families that have the ability to pay for counselling,� said Sterling. Besides the loss to the community, Bishop said the loss will be felt by employees as well. In order to maintain all staff members, each
employee will lose one day of work each scheduled week. “As a non-profit organization, our budget is so tight, the only place we have to cut is staff wages — everything else is fixed,� said Bishop. “When you work in nonprofit, you do the work because you are passionate, but it’s a struggle to keep qualified staff at this rate of pay.� Still, she said the biggest concern is the impact that closing on Fridays will have on the community. Since opening in 1993, Nicola Family Therapy has serviced 3,500 people. Bishop alone saw 60 individuals last month. So, with a goal to return to full time hours as soon as possible, Nicola Family Therapy employees
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and volunteer board members are kicking off a fundraising campaign to recoup revenue lost from the contract. Besides applying for grants and looking for local sponsorship, the organization will be hosting several fundraising events including a baron of beef dinner and silent auction at the Lower Nicola Community Hall on Sept. 29 and an evening of entertainment on Dec. 1. Fundraising had already been in the plans to generate funds for men and couples services, said Bishop, but now the first goal is to return to the status quo and open full time. To make a donation or get involved with fundraising contact the office at 378-9222.
The awards banquet for graduating students at Merritt Secondary School has been cancelled due to this year’s teachers’ job action. “The awards are usually handed out each year in the multipurpose room at the high school,� said NicolaSimilkameen School District 58 Superintendent Bob Peacock. Hosts at the awards ceremony hand out prizes for top athlete, top English student and top academic, for example. Peacock said scholarships won’t be affected by the cancellation. Teachers were involved in other graduation preparation such as the dry grad and the graduation ceremony, but they have since stopped. Parents have stepped in to take on those tasks. But that help doesn’t include the awards banquet as of press time. Teachers went on a threeday strike in March prior to being ordered back to work after Bill 22 was passed. The bill imposes a six-month cooling off period. In response, the teachers ended their participation in extracurricular activities. B.C. Teachers Federation president Susan Lambert said at the time the decision to cancel the activities was “wrenching.� “We know this will mean
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