Illitiit joins forces with Iqaluit mental health association

MICHAELA RODRIGUE
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Facing a mountain of need and too few helping hands, two of Iqaluit’s volunteer organizations may soon merge.

Iqaluit’s Illitiit Society and the Canadian Mental Health Association, which runs the Sailivik Centre, may merge in an effort to bolster a volunteer base they say is strapped for resources.

The decision was made last week at a meeting of residents concerned about poverty.

The idea must still be approved by each group’s board of directors. If it is, a new organization, known as CMHA-Illitiit, would emerge.

Both organizations have “phantom memberships,” said Illitiit Society board member Bill Riddell.

Illitiit and CMHA each have boards of directors, but the organizations have been hampered by a lack of core funding and volunteers who often start out strongly but eventually lose interest or become overwhelmed.

As numbers dwindle, the workload for the handful of remaining volunteers becomes too much.

“We have committed volunteers, but you can wear them out,” Riddell explained.

Riddell and Lee Smith, the executive director of the CMHA branch, say a full board of directors and a large general membership can end that cycle and bring relief to Iqaluit’s volunteer corps.

In fact, they say it would not take a large board of directors to set the CMHA-Illitiit on the right track

“Now we want seven or eight people, not two or three,” Smith told the group of assembled residents.

Riddell and Smith envision one seven- or eight-member board responsible for the two groups. The eight people who attended last week’s meeting may be among those asked to form the board of directors, Riddell said.

An executive would then be formed by a few members of the board. Special committees in turn would run various projects the board decided to undertake.

The setup, they say, would allow the society’s work to be split up between various committees and no one member would be forced to work on every project.

“People could still have an outside life,” Smith said.

Right now the CMHA only has one paid employee and two or three directors.

A large general membership, they say, will also keep the merged organization accountable and focused on their mandate.

At the same time, Smith and Riddell hope a new — and better organized — structure will have more success finding money for projects. And eventually core funding.

CMHA held off on applying for new funds this year until a new structure is in place.

Smith believes an overhauled organization with all its finances in order may have an easier time attracting money.

“If all this amalgamations were to happen, the CMHA can try for core funding from several sources,” Smith said. Smith said different levels of government may come forward to pay for the new organization just as they did for Iqaluit’s homeless shelter.

Core funding, they say, is needed to keep the group focused on its mandate.

“Things turn out much better when you have a vision — a mandate and a membership that makes you accountable to that mandate,” Smith said.

But without core funding, he said groups run the risk of taking on projects that only appeal to funding agencies.

Before the two groups can merge, an audit of financial records needs to be done. That is expected to be done by July 15. In September the amalgamated group would hold a meeting to form a new board of directors and a general membership.

The drive to amalgamate the two volunteer groups comes just months after members of the Wellness Conference called upon the Town of Iqaluit to form an interagency committee for volunteer groups.

The interagency groups would oversee funding of Iqaluit’s various volunteer groups and ensure that projects aren’t duplicated. Riddell said it would be “inappropriate” for the Illitiit Society or the CMHA to take on that role until the Town has responded.

But even if the Town does create such an interagency body, the two agencies should still merge and have a new membership drive, Smith said.

“We need to have a broad-based membership to have accountability,” Smith said.

The Illitiit Society emerged three years ago after a “Wellness Conference” was held in Iqaluit. The society is supposed to accomplish some of the conference’s ideas.

The Illitiit Society runs Iqaluit’s homeless shelter and gets wellness funds, administered by the town to run other projects.

The CMHA runs a soup kitchen at the Sailivik Centre and a thrift shop as well as a number of other projects.