Local preventative social services program celebrates 50 years
Posted May 9, 2016 1:35 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
In 2015, nearly 100,000 Calgarians received some kind of support through agencies and programs funded by Family and Community Support Services — a social assistance partnership between the city and the province which is celebrating 50 years of success stories.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi lauded the FCSS as an important player in how our community receives social services, particularly those preventative in nature.
“It’s impossible to quantify the difference that it’s made in people’s lives,” Nenshi declared. “People facing poverty, homelessness, addiction, mental health issues, new Canadians, First Nations folks — these are all the sorts of people who are helped through FCSS.”
70 per cent of the funding for FCSS comes from the province and 30 per cent comes from the city.
Nenshi said for every one dollar in preventable services, five to 13 dollars are saved in future spending on the justice system, domestic violence, healthcare and addiction treatment.
This year, the program received a funding boost from the province for the first time in seven years.
“Very pleased that in their first budget, this new government finally increased the allocation to FCCS,” Nenshi applauded. “The city has held our standard for the rest of our budget so that these organizations that have really been starving for funds and are doing so much good work have just a teensy bit of breathing room now.”
“But of course, that coincided with the downturn in the economy. Add much more work for these folks. So, you can’t win for losing.”
