Although the YWCA Montreal is this year celebrating 145 years of history and expertise, this is the first time that the team in place has faced an event of this kind and magnitude. The current health crisis is hitting the community sector hard, and we are facing the same repercussions as businesses, but with much more modest means and revenues at hand.
The repercussions from this crisis abruptly interrupted the activities of the Hotel Y, the Auberge YWCA and the Fringues thrift-boutique, the organization’s self-financing activities.
Subsidies are not sufficient to cover operating costs – rent, electricity, administrative personnel, etc. “It takes independent revenue.”
The organization was nearing the end of the reserves accumulated during the 2019 peak tourist season, and was getting ready to reap the benefits again.
These upheavals have also highlighted the lack of technological resources needed to work efficiently at a distance. It is also vital to review the strategic plan in its entirety in light of the needs that the crisis has created for the women and girls who depend on the YWCA Montreal. How can we rethink the services we offer at a distance? How can we envisage recovery and diversify self-financing?
In this article in La Presse (in french), Mélanie Thivierge speaks openly of the challenges imposed by this situation and states her determination to keep the YWCA on firm ground for the women and girls who depend on our support, today and for the future.
Read the rest of this article by Mélanie Thivierge, CEO of the YWCA Montreal, in La Presse +.
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