Expanding horizons
Horizon Achievement Centre asks CBRM for $750,000
The Horizon Achievement Centre is looking to the municipality for a financial contribution to top off its funding for a new state of the art facility.
Campaign manager Stephen Tobin appeared before Cape Breton Regional Municipality council on Tuesday to provide the chamber with an update on its plans for a new home and to plant the seed for a request for $750,000.
“We have an aging facility that no longer meets the needs and requirements of our clientele and is also limiting us in our ability to grow and expand our programs and services,” said Tobin, who became the public face of the Ashby legion’s wildly successful Chase the Ace game that last year raised close to $800,000 for the non-profit organization.
Tobin told council that the projected cost of the proposed new facility is now $12,750,000. He said the federal government has committed $5.5 million, while the province has agreed to kick in $4.5 million. Meanwhile, the centre has fundraised approximately $1.2 million of its $2 million Beyond the Horizon campaign goal.
That leaves the project $750,000 short.
Which prompted Coun. Steve Gillespie to ask Tobin what will happen if the municipality doesn’t cough up the cash.
“At this point it is part of our plan, but if it becomes a reality that it is not part of the fiscal capabilities of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, then we would have to reassess that plan,” he said, adding that the funding request, which is to be officially made in the near future, be spread over two years. Abbey Stapleton, a client of the Horizon Achievement Centre, has the ears of, from left, CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke and municipality CAO Marie Walsh during a recent council meeting. Warner spoke as part of an update on the non-profit organization’s plans for a new building. The centre announced that it intends to ask the CBRM for a $750,000 contribution to the project sometime next year.
“And, it is our hope that by stretching it out over two construction periods that it would be more palatable not only for council but our federal and provincial partners as well.”
Prior to Tobin’s presentation, council also heard from Abbey Stapleton and Adele Warner, both clients of the centre that is Cape Breton’s largest provider of vocational training and employment development services for adults living with intellectual disabilities.
“I have made many friends and my dream is to get a job someday — in the new building there will be a lot of new things for me to learn, we will have nice classrooms and computers, too,” said Stapleton, who has also participated as a speedskater in the Special Olympics.
Added Warner, who has been a Horizon client for just over a year: “The centre has given me the opportunity to make new friends, enjoy many activities and I learned to have a great work ethic.”
The centre, established in 1984, now has 143 clients (many of whom work as employees in Horizon initiatives), with another 75 presently on the waiting list. The current clientele includes about 100 people waiting for additional services.
In 2013, when the centre’s needs outgrew its capacity, the province purchased and donated a 5.5-acre piece of land in Harbourside Commercial Park on the former site of the Sydney steel plant.