Your help needed in challenging summer
It is already proving to be a summer like no other, due to the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. For many of us, trips have been cancelled, visits with family and friends postponed indefinitely, and many of our usual summer pastimes left unavailable.
This is a challenging summer for us as a community, too. While our region has been relatively fortunate in terms of caseloads and healthcare strains, and while many of the restrictions we saw earlier in the year have been lifted or at least partly so, the economic and social effects of the pandemic continue to be endured by our region.
Our friends over at the South Island Prosperity Partnership have been tracking month-bymonth the economic fallout of the pandemic in our region. The July edition of their Rising Economy Dashboard shows that unemployment is still on the rise, hotel occupancy is down, and flight, ferry and transit ridership has plummeted. Clearly, we are facing some hard economic times on the South Island.
We know the same rings true for the civil society, or charitable, sector. No Immunity, a report we released in May in partnership with Vantage Point and the Vancouver Foundation, revealed one in five B.C. charities face closure due to the pandemic. While we have made an extraordinary effort as a region, and as a nation, to support these charities, many local organizations — and the people they serve — continue to struggle.
Summer is typically a lean time for donations and support for charities at the best of times, let alone when so many residents face their own personal economic uncertainties and pressure. Many charities raise funds at events, all or most of which have been cancelled or postponed. Those missing dollars not only prevent programs from running, they also mean staff and bills don’t get paid.
Sadly, this month, we saw the closure of the Sooke Crisis Centre due to a lack of funding. After a couple of tough years, the pandemic was the last straw and the centre will no longer be providing the social services, wellness support, emergency supplies and more it has been delivering to the community for over 30 years.
Other organizations are adapting to attempt to ride out the storm and provide much-needed services. This month, Silver Threads and Seniors Serving Seniors joined forces to share a space in Victoria that will allow them to provide support to seniors in the community. Together they have a 103-year history and are doing what it takes to keep that history going.
If you can, please consider supporting our charitable sector this summer, in whatever way you can. This might mean donations or volunteering, or visiting local attractions in our community, many of which are charities, during your staycation, or even enjoying some of the alternative ways our local arts gropus are enriching our lives through online offerings. It all makes a difference.