At last week’s Town of The Pas council meeting, members from The Pas Association for Human Development (TPAHD) Board of Directors made a presentation during Citizen’s Period. In that presentation, TPAHD was looking for the town for forgiveness of their property taxes for the next three years, to help them keep operating costs down, while they work on increasing their number of individuals who attend the programs and services, revenue and income streams. TPAHD has an umbrella of services and programs for people with disabilities that are funded through the provincial government, private funding and the New To You thrift store. “TPAHD was established in the 1980s by a group of people and parents that strongly felt it was important that individuals with disabilities could remain in The Pas as adults and access services,” said TPAHD Executive Director Cathy Lipscomb. “Under TPAHD umbrella, a number of programs operate. “The Workplace is a day program that operates Monday to Friday, that supports and provides programs for individuals with intellectual disabilities. It’s primarily funded through Community Living Disability Services (CLDS) under the Manitoba Department of Families. “New To You is a second-hand retail outlet that is completely supported through community donations to create retail and revenue,” said Lipscomb. “SEP is a program of offering services to individual living wage above the minimum individuals with a disability or barrier of some kind that may be hindering them on their life path to education or employment. Funding is providing annually for individuals through Manitoba Education and Training. “The Workplace and New To You are the pro grams that are currently suffering financial hard ships. SEP has a separate funder and has success fully secured adequate funding for this contract year that expires on September 30, 2024.” At the Town of The Pas council meeting, TPAHD Treasurer Darryl Shotton noted that before the pandemic they pro vided services and programming for 12 to 15 individuals, and now that number has reduced to six. TPAHD put great emphasis in keeping staff employed during the pandemic, with hopes it wouldn’t last long and to be prepared to resume services once things re turned to normal. “The Workplace currently employs one direct support worker and the executive director full-time,” said Lipscomb. “Currently there are three individuals working full-time and three part-time. Two part-time workers have indicated they would love to work full-time, but there has not been funding se cured from the Province to make this happen. would be short lived and wanted to ensure that the staff would return, when it was declared safe to do so. When The Workplace was allowed to reopen, it was done under the guidance and direction of the Province. “It was done by stag gearing the return of individuals and keeping the smaller co-hort together,” said Lipscomb. “The funding at the time was reduced again and the per diems were based on actual days of service for each individual. TPAHD maintained full staff at this time, thus draining even more of our rainy-day fund. “After many months of operating at half capacity, we were given clearance to resume to pre-pandemic numbers. Not all individuals re turned to full-time, but TPAHD made accommodations for half-time re turns and made adjustments to the staffing ratio. “New To You was closed down completely, then it was deemed essential and was allowed to re open with limits,” said Lipscomb. “Even with the ability to re-open, the revenue did not rebound, as many surrounding com munities remained on lockdown, with a lot of our customers from these surrounding areas. “Donated good also had restrictions and were required to be isolated be fore handling. Donations continue to pour in and still do.” The majority of the programming and services provided to individuals with disabilities at TPAHD focused on life skills and employability. Funding for these pro grams from the provincial government relies on assessing the individuals’ needs, while profits from New To You allowed it to be a self-sufficient operation. Now, New to You pays individuals with dis abilities working there with store credit, rather than a minimum wage paycheque. “Before the pandemic, individuals worked on life skills such as dish washing, doing laundry, com munity awareness and involvement activities, basic cooking, shopping, peer mentoring, socialization and customer interactions through working at New To You,” said Lipscomb. “Post pandemic, we still maintain our programming, but the com munity awareness and involvement activities have become limited due to opportunities and staff shortages. “The Workplace has a Service Purchase Agreement with the Manitoba government. This is the primary funder of the day program. Funding levels are based on the individual and what their needs are. The way individuals are funded has changed. It takes into consideration the level of support needed by each individual, in all parts of their lives, and what supports are needed for them to be successful. “New To You has no external funding and all revenue is created through purchase transactions,” said Lipscomb. “Before the pandemic, it was a self-sufficient business that was able to cost share the fixed expenses of the building, pay wages to the full-time manager, part time store clerk, as well as pay minimum wages for each hour worked by the individuals in attendance at The Workplace. “After the pandemic, sales have dropped and the income pays the wages of the full-time manager, but is unable to cost share any fixed expenses of the building. Individuals from The Workplace continue to help process items for sale, but are given store credit for their time.” Now TPAHD is in a financial crisis and are reaching out to various levels of government for assistance. “TPAHD is in a financial crisis and our immediate concerns are being able to keep the doors open and to continue to provide services to the individuals we are supporting,” said Lipscomb. “We have reached out to all levels of government for assistance. We have approached the Town of The Pas and have a meeting scheduled with Manitoba Department of Families on February 6. We have for warded a letter to Amanda Lathlin and reached out to Niki Ashton about our Canadian Emergency Business Account (CEBA) repayment. Since we have repaid CEBA, it has resulted in draining our bank account. “No one has offered any assistance yet.” In Shotton’s letter to town council, he noted that there are 31 students in the Life Skills Program at MBCI that will be graduating in the upcoming years and six from Oscar Lathlin Collegiate that are graduating this year that would be eligible to come to The Workplace. TPAHD is working on adding new services, in hopes to attract more individuals, however, it will require more money for programming and staffing costs to do so. “Our plan is to secure additional funds to pay our outstanding debt,” said Lipscomb. “We’re working on securing more types of services, thus reaching more individuals. This will require an in crease in revenue to have more staff to offer a variety of services.” “Pre-pandemic, The Workplace and New To You were shut down completely. Funding for The Workplace was clawed back to a minimal amount of dollars that wasn’t even adequate enough to cover any fixed expenses. TPAHD Board of Directors made a decision to keep its employees on the payroll, with the expectation that staying home. In a letter to town council, Shotton noted that some of the issues stemmed from reducing sales at the New To You thrift store, a reduction in clients due to the closing of a local group home and increased employee costs while trying to provide living wage above the minimum. The majority of the programming and services provided to individuals with disabilities at TPAHD focused on life skills and employability. Funding for these pro grams from the provincial government relies on assessing the individuals’ needs, while profits from New To You allowed it to be a self-sufficient operation. Now, New to You pays individuals with dis abilities working there with store credit, rather than a minimum wage paycheque. “Before the pandemic, individuals worked on life skills such as dish washing, doing laundry, com munity awareness and involvement activities, basic cooking, shopping, peer mentoring, socialization and customer interactions through working at New To You,” said Lipscomb. “Post pandemic, we still maintain our programming, but the com munity awareness and involvement activities have become limited due to opportunities and staff shortages. “The Workplace has a Service Purchase Agreement with the Manitoba government. This is the primary funder of the day program. Funding levels are based on the individual and what their needs are. The way individuals are funded has changed. It takes into consideration the level of support needed by each individual, in all parts of their lives, and what supports are needed for them to be successful. “New To You has no external funding and all revenue is created through purchase transactions,” said Lipscomb. “Before the pandemic, it was a self-sufficient business that was able to cost share the fixed expenses of the building, pay wages to the full-time manager, part time store clerk, as well as pay minimum wages for each hour worked by the individuals in attendance at The Workplace. “After the pandemic, sales have dropped and the income pays the wages of the full-time manager, but is unable to cost share any fixed expenses of the building. Individuals from The Workplace continue to help process items for sale, but are given store credit for their time.” Now TPAHD is in a financial crisis and are reaching out to various levels of government for assistance. “TPAHD is in a financial crisis and our immediate concerns are being able to keep the doors open and to continue to provide services to the individuals we are supporting,” said Lipscomb. “We have reached out to all levels of government for assistance. We have approached the Town of The Pas and have a meeting scheduled with Manitoba Department of Families on February 6. We have for warded a letter to Amanda Lathlin and reached out to Niki Ashton about our Canadian Emergency Business Account (CEBA) repayment. Since we have repaid CEBA, it has resulted in draining our bank account. “No one has offered any assistance yet.” In Shotton’s letter to town council, he noted that there are 31 students in the Life Skills Program at MBCI that will be graduating in the upcoming years and six from Oscar Lathlin Collegiate that are graduating this year that would be eligible to come to The Workplace. TPAHD is working on adding new services, in hopes to attract more individuals, however, it will require more money for programming and staffing costs to do so. “Our plan is to secure additional funds to pay our outstanding debt,” said Lipscomb. “We’re working on securing more types of services, thus reaching more individuals. This will require an in crease in revenue to have more staff to offer a variety of services."