Due to a financial shortfall the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Prince George are delaying fall group programs that will affect about 50 children during the four to five sessions that usually begin in September.
The programs affected are called Team Up; Game On; Strong Youth, Fearless Women; Go Girls and Girls' Club.
"It is very disappointing that we're not able to offer the group programs because we know the demand is there and it pains us that we are not able to meet that demand," said Tim Bennett, executive director of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Prince George.
"But at this point our priority, especially through this cash-flow crunch, is to serve our Bigs and our Littles who are matched in our program."
Three employees are laid off as a result of delaying the group programs, one full time and two part-time.
It all started when fundraising efforts in the last half of 2015 fell short leaving the non-profit society about $35,000 in debt to carry forward into 2016 while the late arrival of their 2015 BC Gaming Grant compounded the problem.
"We had a very difficult 2015 financially as an organization," said Bennett.
"Because of the cash-flow problems we faced at the end of last year, we're still feeling the affects of that."
Between grants the organization relies on cash garnered through fundraising and individual donations, but there is an anticipated shortfall from this year's fundraising efforts.
The group's summer fundraisers were not as successful as they hoped and the next big fundraiser is Bowl for Kids' Sake this fall, Bennett said.
"In order to be proactive in some way to combat what we think is going to be a challenging couple of months we made the decision to delay the start in our group programs that typically start in September/October and we will look at reintroducing group sessions in early 2017," said Bennett.
The group programs usually include a fall session, winter session and spring session.
"We are hoping this decision will only impact our fall session," said Bennett.
Including Big Brothers and Big Sisters four childcare centres, the society has 14 employees in total.
"We as an organization are trying to move towards being more self-sufficient," said Bennett.
"Between our childcare programs and our community shuttle program that generates close to 40 per cent of our revenue, 35 per cent is generated through grants and the remainder is either individual donations or fundraising.
"And we as an agency recognize that when there are hundreds of other local non profits and there's more demand on people's dollars, whether through fundraising or supporting your neighbour through a gofundme, there's so many worthwhile causes out there it forces every agency to compete for every dollar - and not just everyone's dollar but everyone's time. So I don't believe this problem is unique to Big Brothers Big Sisters and we appreciate everything the community has done for us."
To donate to the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Prince George visit www.bbbspg.ca and click support us or visit the office at 777 Kinsmen Pl.
