STEVE: Now just to digress a little bit, you have mentioned the harvest program a couple of times. Could you briefly explain what the harvest program is?
LINDA: Harvest project is like a food bank here on the North Shore that is available to I think, I'm not real knowledgeable about the specifics but my sense of the program is that anyone who is in need of a helping hand can go to the harvest project and they will help you with food. They may also help you with trying to get you back on your feet. So it's for people who are challenged financially and I know that their food bank there is something that we're pleased to donate to whenever we can. STEVE: Right. Now I did notice coming in here that there was a lot of, there were a lot of wheel chairs and canes and this kind of thing and stored in two storage areas. What exactly, is that part of your activity?
LINDA: Absolutely and good eye Steve. There is a number of equipment around the front desk. We run the Red Cross loan program for the North Shore so that's a partnership that we have with the Red Cross. Red Cross supplies mobility aids for example, wheel chairs, walkers, we have canes, we also have a number of bath aids, commodes, those kinds of things and we can provide a free loan of this equipment to members of the North Shore who have a referral from a doctor. The loan is for a length of up to 3 months and sometimes that can be extended if need be. So if you go to your doctor and you need this kind of equipment, on the North Shore we're the people to come to, to loan that equipment here. As I said, it's a partnership that we have with the Red Cross. They provide the equipment and make a small rental payment for the space here and we train and manage the volunteers to run that program. We have approximately 15 volunteers that man the front desk and run that program Monday - Friday about 9 till 4 o'clock regularly and they loan out that equipment. They have to get to know the equipment. They have to understand how to explain, how it's used to the people that are borrowing it and we support that and work with the Red Cross in terms of the policy around loaning that equipment out. We also have volunteers that come in and who are trained to keep the equipment clean and keep it running so they will adjust the equipment and take a look at it for safety and ensure that it's safe. STEVE: Now, of course you keep on referring to volunteers and I kind of have two questions that I want to get back to. And I would like to understand a little bit more about the kinds of people that do volunteer and the kinds of things that they do. But I'm still wondering how, what the connection is to the youth riots, which is where we started this conversation. LINDA: Well let me address your first question first. Let's talk a bit about the volunteers. Our organization has about 225 volunteers and that is in all aspects of our programming. For example we are a non profit society and we are overseen by a board of directors. So our directors of which we have approximately 10, are volunteers. We also have volunteers in the senior's hub program that I've talked about and there's about 200 volunteers there and then we have volunteers that run the Red Cross loan program. Our volunteers are committed to our organization. We have volunteer bus drivers that are so proud of Doris I cannot tell you and if we are neglecting Doris the volunteer bus drivers will come and make sure that Doris is well cared for. It's really interesting because I feel our volunteers have a strong sense of ownership of this society and I believe that's why they're so committed to the work that they do and the clients that we serve. So we really share in what we do for the community. I think that really comes back. Volunteers are here with us for many reasons. For example we have a number physio therapists who volunteer in the program who have seen the needs of seniors through their own professional work and so very often when they retire or if they have extra time they'll come and they'll actually volunteer in our program and those are great volunteers to have out on some of the programs that we have. They also may have seen the contribution of our services with the Red Cross loan program. They may have been physios that worked and saw how we've loaned equipment out and have come to know us through that way. And so we have volunteers, physios for example, who are aware of us through the Red Cross loan program. We have many community members, for example, we have a special partnership through highlands United Church. They were very much involved in the youth riots. At that time they were very much instrumental in responding to that crisis in their community and so we've always had a longstanding relationship with the Highland Church and they make regular donations, financial donations to the society and they provide volunteers for the front desk and for the senior's hub as a sense of their contribution to their community. We have a number of volunteers that come to us through the multicultural society and community here. We have a number of volunteers who come to us because they want to develop their English further and they may be professionals and new to the community and need to develop some Canadian experience and so we have open arms to any volunteer in that capacity who comes to us and if you, I think that we boast at this point, we have about 14 languages that we can respond to any client with. We'll find someone somewhere so we have those and then we have a number of retired people who are looking to be a part of the community and we have found because our, I think our unique approach to volunteer management is that we really empower our volunteers to be a part of our programming. People get their reward and do participate.
