It’s a tough time for non-profits in town. An increase in the cost of basic necessities like food, fuel and housing means that the need is greater than ever. This can create a perfect storm for agencies that provide assistance. Efficient use of scarce resources is paramount.
Staff from Virden Branch of Border Regional Library were pumped about community groups and the possible synergy of collaborating, after attending a networking day for libraries, held at Selkirk. Library administrator Treasure Sparks, senior librarian Laranda Bailey and assistant librarian Allysa Eisner were going over the material and insights they received there and became excited about sharing it with the community, beyond the confines of the library. They felt that other non-profit groups in Virden and area could benefit. According to Sparks, the sentiment was, “We need to get these groups talking.” Sparks pointed to the Arts Mosaic’s Culture Days produced this past fall (Virden celebrates culture, Oct. 11th issue, Empire-Advance). She said, “That was a big, collaborative effort.”
The library is a non-profit that brings the written word to the community and makes it accessible for all and online opportunities for readers are becoming ever more important. Building maintenance and technology upgrades are essential. Since 2020 the library team has welcomed some new faces and now, they have joined with The Royal Canadian Legion, the Town of Virden and the RM of Wallace-Woodworth to plan a Community Builders Mixer event with the goal of increasing collaboration to share resources and information.
As the library staff brainstormed, they realized that a lot of people in Virden community are part of several groups. The collaboration between the Dog Park and the Spray Park in the Splash of Christmas craft sale is just one of many examples of overlap and cooperation. They decided it was high time the groups of the community got together to see how they could help each other.
Sparks has sent out email invitations to all they could identify. Initially they came up with 64 groups and since then have added about 16 more groups to the list. Groups like the Chamber of Commerce, even the RCMP and WDFD (fire department) have been contacted along dozens of other more conventional non-profit groups.
Non-profits cover a wide variety of community needs that leverage a wide variety of resources and any collaboration requires a clear idea of these needs, and what resources are available. To this end the Community Builders group has requested all groups to submit a profile describing their current activities, goals and volunteer base. These will be on display at the Friday event where people will be able to scan a bar code with their phone to get a group’s full information.
The invitation has been extended and the event takes place Friday evening, Dec. 13 at the Legion Hall. It’s the ultimate networking opportunity for volunteers and non-profits. With food and refreshments available, Sparks even has a seating ‘mixer’ in mind to get new people talking to each other.
This event will provide an opportunity to meet the recently hired Town of Virden Economic Development Officer. The RM of Wallace-Woodworth will also display some recent highlights of their community projects.
