— by Lin McNulty —

An interview with OICF Director Hilary Canty

Dave just lost his job and needs food stamps for the first time in his life. Teresa needs childcare so she can go back to work. Auntie Jean is no longer able to cook for herself. Sarah has a special needs child and doesn’t know where to go for help. Annette needs help getting a restraining order.

A number of recent community conversations has revealed a limited level of awareness of services offered. Many needs are being met by more than 112 non-profit organizations on Orcas. The problem lies in knowing who provides what and where to go and who to contact to get the assistance required.

Enter Orcas Island Community Foundation (OICF), along with several other local organizations, who are exploring the possibility of a “Hub,” a one-stop shop for  all services. On October 9, OICF issued a letter of interest to see if, perhaps, there is an existing organization(s) that wants to take it on. Sixteen responses were received by the November 1 deadline from organizations and individuals with some really creative ideas. Responses were much broader than originally thought, stressing the need for centralized services.

There has long been confusion about where to go for what service, and a belief that it could all be done better if service providers were more connected. “We started hearing about this need a couple of years ago,” said Hilary Canty, OICF Executive Director. At that time, OICF had assigned funding to set-up a web portal (online database), but it was determined that was not the best solution for our island community. After meetings with several social service agencies on the island, it was decided that a “human interface” was needed.

Among the many groups hoping to centralize services are Orcas CARES, presently a function of the Fire Department, Family Connections located at Kaleidoscope Daycare, Thrive Orcas Island, and Orcas Public Library.

Although it was suggested that the former Monkey Puzzle building would be an ideal physical location, Canty stresses the desire would be to not “add another level of rent and administration.

“A central Hub would help all organizations better serve the community. It would be a way to create a structure with which to triage needs. And the need is still growing. “We might not even know all the needs of our community at this point,” added Canty.” If centrally located, we suspect we will find out more than we are aware of.”

This type of system has recently been successfully tested in other communities. In Seattle the old Amazon building was leased to medical-related nonprofits for medical training, with the concept there is more action when under one roof. A “water cooler” environment is created where ideas and concerns can be shared with the community, Canty said.

“For us to attract donors to help our community we need it to be apparent who we can help. A HUB could track information about community needs and make a case for support. A connection, then, with off-island organizations—such as the Medina Foundation (with old family connections to Orcas) — could attract more assistance with better statistical data on the needs of our populace.

“If a HUB could be a volunteer-run service with meaningful opportunities that would be a win-win situation,” says Canty. That will be only one of the items for discussion—and active listening—as OICF invites respondents and other interested parties to meet in early December to determine the next steps to make this happen.

While there are threads of concern around the community, OICF is presently taking the lead to make something happen. “We hope, however,” added Canty, “that this can be accomplished without adding one more organization to the mix.”

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