City hiring another social development staffer with grant

Another staff member will be added to the City of Penticton’s burgeoning social development department with part of the proceeds from a $435,000 grant that was awarded to the municipality earlier this month with little fanfare.

Penticton is one of 48 communities sharing in a $76-million disbursement from the Strengthening Communities’ Services Program, which is a joint effort of the provincial and federal governments.

The program is aimed at helping local governments improve their responses to homelessness in the pandemic era.

In Penticton, that means hiring a temporary social development assistant.

“This is the first major step in the mobilization of this grant,” said Adam Goodwin, the city’s social development strategist, in an email.

“The role will be to help co-ordinate the various grant activities, and other relevant efforts.”

Goodwin, whose own position was created in April 2020, said his assistant’s title will be “community mobilizer.”

Elements of the city’s grant application were presented in a report the Safety and Security Advisory Committee at its March 29 meeting.

That report describes the social development assistant’s job as acting as a liaison to groups like 100 More Homes Penticton that “focus on upstream initiatives around housing and homelessness,” as well as “enhancing the co-ordination of downstream services in the community, and working on understanding individuals who are high users of public systems such as police, bylaw, and fire resources.”

The application also contemplates hiring an expert to consult on homelessness issues, raising the total cost for new help to $215,000.

Other elements of the city’s application include $90,000 for a temporary bylaw officer to focus on referring homeless people to services; $50,000 for “educational and dialogue workshops” with community groups; $25,000 to develop a fire safety plan for vulnerable people; and $20,000 to analyze what health services are currently available to homeless people.

Kelowna was the big winner in the grant announcement with a $3.2-million award to develop and implement its outdoor shelter strategy. Vernon also cashed in with a $1.2million grant, some of which will be used to increase safety at public washrooms and keep seasonal bylaw officers working through winter.

“These grants will provide local governments with a much-needed boost to continue vital services that were strained because of the pandemic,” said Municipal Affairs Minister Josie Osborne in an Aug. 13 press release.

“This is another StrongerBC program focused on making life better for people and ensuring communities emerge from the pandemic even stronger than before.”