Some of the headlines - Downtown task force in works. Action needed to fix downtown, forum hears.
Then an excellent article on page 29 of the Dec. 5 edition of The Citizen written by Business Coach Dave Fuller appeared in his usual business section of the paper, but which could well have been placed on the opinion page: Poverty and the responsibility of business.
He comes at the subject from his long experience as a volunteer and his years of operating businesses in the downtown area. He is well acquainted with the people, the area, the problems and he offers real solutions. He sat down with some of the folks at the place where he volunteers to ask for their thoughts on why they go to the centre and what they felt was the root of the problem. He engaged those who are actually living the problem every day.
He even asked one fellow if he felt giving them money would fix the problem and after some thought, his reply was, "no, giving money wouldn't fix anything. The problem is different; we need more jobs."
There are many jobs - small, big - that could be done by those caught in this cycle of poverty: cleaning up the area around businesses; any kind of manual labour, even just a couple of hours a week (snow clearing tops the list right now), can give purpose, hope and be the first step out of poverty to someone who has hit rock bottom. It empowers people to take control of their lives."
If you didn't read Dave's article, it's on The Citizen's website.
Joan McKay
Prince George
