Changes to and the expansion of the Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) grant program, led staff to approach council June 6 to request approval for a new term position to assist with evaluating programs funding under the grant program.
An additional $10 million of FCSS funding province-wide was announced Sept. 18, 2015. Council approved the allocation of a portion of this additional funding at its March 21 meeting, with a total of $248,872 going to seven different agencies for 11 programs. The agencies include the Boys and Girls Club of Airdrie (BGCA), the Airdrie Food Bank, North Rocky View Community Links and the Airdrie and District Victim Assistance Society.
An additional $145,000 was previously approved Jan. 18 for community research conducted by the City of Airdrie.
“As a result of this additional workload, it became apparent to administration that our obligation for reporting (to the Province) had increased,” Social Planner Patti Murray said. “It now involves evaluating approximately 175 plus services delivered through over 23 programs, analyzing and reporting on 3,700 plus survey samples from about 20,000 users and developing new evaluation methodologies, such as survey instruments, case studies and reviews to align with funding priorities.”
According to Murray, staff is also stretched to the limit to provide training to the agencies receiving the funding in terms of their reporting requirements.
The cost for a term employee – July through December – of approximately $60,000 including salary and benefits, could be borne by a approximately $80,000 surplus of unused funds in the FCSS funding allocation from the Province.
Murray said the department would be proceeding with requesting a permanent additional staff member during the 2017 budgeting process. There are currently 1.7 positions within the social planning department dedicated to administering the FCSS program.
Mayor Peter Brown questioned Murray about the work staff needed to do given the agencies receiving funding are required to prepare reports and submit them.
“I’m trying to understand our responsibility and the funding agency. (The agencies) are getting the same (surveys and other evaluations). Are they not already providing all that information?” he said. “That’s where I’m getting lost a little bit. I know that the Food Bank and ADVAS, they have to provide that feedback. They are required to provide this detail so I’m not quite understanding our responsibility as it relates to this information and our workload.”
Murray said staff is required to consolidate all the information received from the agencies and because of changes to the amount of detail the Province requires, the system the department uses to report on outcomes will need to be revamped.
Council unanimously approved staff’s request, however, decided to assess the need for this position to be made permanent.
“I’m fine with allocating excess funding for someone now but I don’t want it written in stone that we’re going to be hiring someone until we determine if there’s a way we can streamline this information from the different agencies,” Brown said.
