Community—What are your thoughts? (second wave measures)

Dear Community,

We are here. Things have certainly been chaotic, with the ever changing regulations, the ongoing isolation, and the general anxiety over employment, finances, health and the future. We are right here with you, experiencing many of the same doubts, worries, concerns and missing the freedoms we have in our communities. We are here, and we need you and your support.

We are not going to pretend we aren’t worried. Not just about our personal lives, but about the communities we love and belong to and what things will look like when this is all ‘’over’’. With the new rise in cases and the Alberta Health Mandates that are intended to prevent overloading the health system, we are at risk for losing the community spaces like ours, unless we take action. For the next 30 days (or longer) all socializing events are restricted to a maximum of 15 people. If numbers continue to climb, more regulations will be imposed. This means either closing down and forfeiting our lease, or finding other ways to ensure the landlord is being paid.

Options:

• We can continue to offer events for a max of 15 people (including staff, volunteers etc), and try to continue to raise funds this way. This is, at best, a partial solution, as the fees from 15 attendees are not enough to cover the lease. Another concern is, if there is a COVID-19 related case amongst our community, it could impact our ability to have any sort of community, even when the pandemic is over. There is already a great deal of stigma around our communities, and we are concerned that this could make things much, much worse.
• We can close, forfeit our leases, and hopefully find another space to operate out of when this is over, if we can financially recuperate from the losses.
• We can leverage our community voices to pressure our municipal, provincial and federal governments to provide financial support for organizations like ours (small businesses, clubs, nonprofits etc) to ensure the lease is paid.
• We can move to an online platform to allow more persons to enjoy the sense of community, but without the in person events.
• We can increase our community fundraising, relying on folks and businesses like yours to keep our doors open.

Ideally, we can set our spaces up to maximize safety, to support 15 attendees at a time, and incorporate web based attendance, AND pressure the government to support small businesses/organizations like ours to ensure their longevity, AND those who can will consider providing ongoing or one time donations to keep us open.

CLICK HERE and provide your feedback

Add your name/business to letters that are going to the government in request for support HERE.

Donate HERE if you can help (ASPECC) , or organize a fundraiser to bring funds in for us.

Join the Community Round Table on the 29th, 6pm (open to all members of all of our communities, stakeholders and community hosts and leads) HERE