Corner Brook -
Some 80 members of the volunteer and non-profit sector are gathering in Corner Brook to help shape the way they work with the provincial government and to address issues they face themselves.
Dave Denine, minister responsible for the volunteer and non-profit sector, opened the community priorities summit, hosted by the Volunteer and Non-Profit Secretariat, Monday morning.
The first-of-its-kind summit provides an opportunity to build on what is being done in the community, while ensuring volunteers and the sector continues to thrive, the minister said.
Volunteers and members of non-profit organizations have already identified funding, recruitment and retention, and training as their priorities. The summit is focusing on the discussion and development of solutions for these issues.
Since July 2009, Denine has travelled across the province to speak to volunteers and members of the non-profit organizations in 17 communities.
"I am very anxious to continue my travels this summer," he said. "But, I realize, I can't go back into these communities that have been talking about these issues for so long and talk about them again. The time for talking is over.
"I will not return to you and your colleagues without being able to show some progress. The solutions aren't all to be found in government, and they are certainly not to be found by putting more money on the table."
Denine said the solutions are with the community leaders like those present at the summit, and the event was geared towards identifying those solutions and how to implement them in communities across the province. In the end, it could shape the direction of the Voluntary and Non-Profit Secretariat.
"This is just another part of our collaboration to make sure the people who are the grassroots people are heard," he said. "Sometimes you have to get down and listen to the people are everyday, day in and day out, who are doing their thing in the volunteer and non-profit sector, and listen to the issues they have.
" ... At the end of the day and a half or two days, map out where we want to go. I don't want any pie in the sky issues, I want really obtainable goals. Then, the next time I go back in the communities, I will be able to give a report card on the progress."
The summit continues today at the Glynmill Inn.
