The MD of Greenview’s Family and Community Support Services has received more than $225,000 in funding to help bolster its ongoing homeless and poverty prevention programming.
FCSS Director Lisa Hannaford says the grant funding approval is something they can use to go above and beyond in providing their normal services.
“With the money we receive from the province, we are not able to help an individual personally in terms of financial or direct support… as we are in the prevention stream,” she explains.
“Because we got this grant, we are able to assist folks in ways that regular FCSS mandated dollars would not be able to assist.”
Hannaford says there are some caveats as their policy dictates anyone looking for help from FCSS must have been in the MD of Greenview for at least the last three months.
Hannaford adds, as with a lot of Alberta, the municipal district has a clear divide between the “have and have not”. Specifically, she notes there are a lot of people who have never experienced poverty, and then there are quite a few who live it day-to-day.
“People can make an appointment, and we can go and develop a personalized success plan, and that’s the beauty of this because we aren’t giving out money, we are doing an intake to figure out where [we can help].”
MD of Greenview FCSS is one of 11 agencies province-wide to receive the grant, which will be distributed by the Alberta Rural Development Network.