Prince George's Community Voice Mail program got a $25,000 boost Friday.
The provincial government funding duplicates what was provided in 2016 to the program delivered by the Aboriginal Housing Society of Prince George to residents who are homeless, living in poverty, in crisis or transition. There are 300 people registered with the program currently, with 103 of those self-identified as homeless. Since it started in 2014, 402 people have accessed the service.
"Having the ability to receive messages and communicate with prospective employers, healthcare providers and others is essential in the world we live in today," said Shirley Bond, Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training and Minister Responsible for Labour. "Thank you to Kay Robinson and her team for the passion and vision that created this program."
The service sees a client assigned a phone number and then they can get their messages by using any phone including public phones like those found at employment centres, homeless shelters, transition homes and other emergency service agencies. In the meantime, clients can provide their number to those they need to communicate with, including potential employers, training providers, employment and housing agencies, healthcare providers and family members.
Along with checking any messages left for the client, the program also offers a weekly broadcast provided by Robinson about the latest job fairs, training opportunities, community events clients could attend and other services offered to marginalized people in the Prince George community.
The program costs $85,000 to run each year.
While there is support from other community agencies in the north and the City of Prince George, there will soon be an announcement for crowd funding to help support it.
To that end, the aboriginal housing society has created a four-minute video to demonstrate how useful the program is to those in need.
The video can be accessed at http://ahspg.ca/community-voice-mail.
