Claude Belleau comes full circle
When Claude Belleau stepped in as director general at Estrieaide, he knew that if the local non-profit organization was to succeed, it would need three strong pillars on which to stand: economic, environmental and social.
“I didn’t make these up,” the Champlain and Bishop’s grad is quick to disclaim. “These are the three components of sustainable development that I saw work successfully in half a dozen countries around the world. It stands to reason that they would work here as well. This place is proof that they work.”
In his office, Claude Belleau has two framed photos of the 25 000 square foot building that houses Estrieaide’s flagship store and his own office. The very plain brick building is recognizably the same in the two shots, but the feeling of despair and depression evoked by the “before” photo is replaced by an impression of dignity and quiet pride in the second. They illustrate the transformation that the non-profit organization has undergone in the last five years, since the long-time United Nations humanitarian worker was approached to fill the position of director general.
It was both a very fitting and faintly ironic way for Claude Belleau to come full circle. “When I was ten, my family moved from Danville to Sherbrooke. As a child, in Sherbrooke, I bought my clothes at a store called Arthur et son oeuvre. Estrieaide was founded in 1997, but before then, since the 1970s, it existed as Arthur et son oeuvre. I still buy my clothes here.”
Much happened, both to Claude and to Estrieaide between then and now.
“When I was a child, I wasn’t aware that we were poor. My mother always had food on the table for us; she mended our clothes,” Claude recalls. “It wasn’t until I got to high school that I was suddenly aware that I came from what was called a disadvantaged background.”
The culture shock was all the greater because Claude went to the Séminaire St. Charles, the oldest and best known private school in Sherbrooke.
“Sports saved me,” he states. “I liked sports, especially basketball. “I knew they played basketball at the Séminaire so that’s where I wanted to go. I was determined and obstinate and I put up such a fuss that one day my mother walked me to the Seminaire to show me that it was impossible for me to attend such a school. I had to wait in a corridor while my mother went in to speak to someone. Half an hour later, I found out I could enroll.”
Besides playing basketball, Claude also played football. It was as a football player that he was recruited by Tom Allen to play as a running back first at Champlain and then at Bishop’s. While playing for the Cougars he was invited to an Alouettes’ Cegep try-out camp. “I quickly found out that I did not have the speed or the skills to make it as a professional football player,” he says with a grin. Nevertheless the experience was useful and it spurred him to pursue a postgraduate degree at the University of Ottawa. After graduation, he was selected as one of 20 young Canadians to participate in a United Nations program that sent him on his first mission to Africa.
“All our expenses were paid by the government. It was supposed to be for two years,” he quips, “and I was gone for nearly 20.”
Before the assignment was over, he was hired by the United Nations. For the next two decades he lived and worked in countries like Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Afghanistan, and Pakistan before being posted to New York and then Geneva.
“Living abroad is fantastic,” he says, “but there’s something missing. I was glad to come back to Sherbrooke.”
By the time of his return in 2005 he was married and a father of two kids, a son and a daughter. He began his retirement from the U.N. by becoming, in his words, “a stay-at-home mom” for the first two years back in Sherbrooke. Eventually, he started reintegrating himself into the workplace.
“I signed up as a volunteer with Service d’aide aux Néo-canadiens,” he continues. “I had been working with refugees in camps earlier in my career, and Canada is generous in taking in refugees. It was a good fit for me. I went from being a volunteer to becoming an employee at $13.02/hr. Then, in 2013 I was invited to meet the Board of Directors about this position with Estrieaide. In some ways, this is my first real job since coming back to Canada.”
What was supposed to be a 30 hr/wk job turned out to be closer to 50 or 60 hours.
It was a much bigger job than Claude had imagined. By 2012, despite, or perhaps because of, having been in operation for four decades, Estrieaide had itself fallen on hard times. Both literally and figuratively, the roof was leaking. “The roof was in serious need of repair. One of the leaks was over the desk in my office. A gutter had been jerry-rigged to divert the leak to a pail in the corner, so as to keep the desk dry and the computer safe.”
The non-profit was at a turning point. It was losing money. It would either have to close or revitalize itself.
Claude’s first challenge was to repair the roof, and spruce up the building. “Given the size of the building and its state of disrepair, we needed $350 000. My experience with government grants made me look elsewhere for the funding. I spoke to the mayor and the City of Sherbrooke gave us a grant of $50 000. Réjean Hébert, the MNA responsible for the Townships, obtained $85 000 for us. Businesses, Construction Longer in particular, contributed the rest in funds or in goods and services. Businesses are continuously solicited so I approached them with the promise that this was a one-time-only contribution. We got help in the form money and labour; 75 people from Deloitte came in for a daylong work bee and repainted the inside of the entire store.”
Estrieaide’s second-hand store at 375 Wellington is the non-profit organization’s economic pillar. The second-hand store, which accepts donations and recuperates items from recycling, permits Estrieaide to be self-financing.
“Repairing the building was important,” Claude asserts. “To survive, you have to look good. It’s what I call the virtuous circle, the opposite of the vicious circle. We made the place clean and tidy, and it made a tremendous difference. It helped morale. It brought a sense of dignity. It brought pride to our employees, and it brought more customers into the store. In the last five years, our annual sales quintupled. The staff went from 10 to 65. As well, we have about 100 volunteers who help in a variety of ways.”
“The store,” he points out, “is what allows us to do everything else.”
The second of Claude’s three pillars is environmental. He points out that Estrieaide annually recovers some 2000 tons of material from recycling sites. In an age of consumerism, when planned obsolescence is an integral part of design, a great many household items are regularly replaced long before necessary. Items that need only minor repairs are also often consigned to the dust heap. Giving a second life to such items is both economically and environmentally wise.
The third, and arguably the most significant, of the three pillars is social. Estrieaide plays a major role in helping those who have fallen on hard times to get back on their feet again. “Quebec’s troubadour, Félix Leclerc, said once that the best way to killa man is to pay him to do nothing,” Claude points out. “A large number of our employees are people who come from difficult or troubled backgrounds. We have young single mothers who find themselves destitute, often through little fault of their own. We have individuals who have been sentenced by the courts to perform community service. We have people on Welfare who are seeking a door back into the labour market. The main qualification is, do you want to be here? We will help anyone who is willing to work towards helping himself.”
Among those working for Estrieaide are about a dozen people with a handicap of one kind or another. Many of these work in the small shop where items are repaired and refurbished before being put on the shelves in the store for sale. The organization has invested more than a quarter of a million dollars in the last five years to help people get re-established by providing clothing, appliances, furniture, and utensils to start their new lives. It also donates $20 000 a year to various community based organizations such as Festivals et événements verts de l’estrie, le Journal de rue de l’estrie, or for a homework program for the children of new immigrants.
“The tutor goes into the home,” Claude points out, “and ends up tutoring not only the child but often the parents and siblings as well.”
“What we’re dedicated to” he says, “is the creation of a collective wealth. Sustainable development, overseas or here at home, is based on permitting people to realize their economic worth, their social worth, and a more balanced approach to consumerism.”
Estrieaide describes itself as a very human resource. For the many thousands of people it has helped over the decades, it is just that.