Junction Triangle

The Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club still has remained secretive about how they handled the 45 Ernest site and how so much money was wasted. There has been zero accountability and no dialogue with the Junction Triangle community for months. The Councillor and locals asked Sue Kaiser, Manager, Community Funding Social Development, Finance and Administration to investigate.

When the Club was recently awarded a new, below-market-rent space by Sue Kaiser’s department before they released any comments about their “investigation” (see letter below), it left many wondering how an organization that had screwed up so badly could be rewarded again by the City? Considering that the Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club recently reached an out of court settlement to pay 90,000 dollars for walking away from the Ernest clubhouse, one really has to ask who is watching over the Club and has anybody actually taken a real look at their books?

Sue Kaisers department did no investigation. The results are clear in her letter. After three months, they never asked to speak to locals who raised concerns or to look at documents that were available. The letter does not state how much money was wasted or recognize the huge loss in social services for children at the abandoned clubhouse at 45 Ernest.

Although the new lease has not been signed for the below-market-rent space on Bloor, it would appear that the Department of Community Funding and Social Development does not want to hold anybody accountable at the Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club and is letting the same people who brought us the Ernest fiasco continue on.

The best thing for the children and taxpayers of the Junction Triangle is to have transparency and accountability for past actions and put strong governance conditions in place for future projects funded by the City. We need facilities and programs for local children (and teens), nobody is against that.

BUT now that about 300,000 $ has been wasted, do we have confidence in the management of this organization? Funding is very tight for all service organizations that help young people so zero accountability over money is a big, big issue. Sue Kaisers report and the Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club’s silence doesn’t instill confidence. And it doesn’t answer the question of geographic bias. How can the Club make conflicting claims about no money while building a second floor for $1.8-million dollars at their Westmoreland clubhouse that already has an indoor pool, gym, library, games room and computer lab.

You can download the original PDF of this letter here.

June 15, 2011

Kevin Putnam and Scott Dobson via email

Regarding your complaint about Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club.

Dear Kevin and Scott:

This letter is in response to Kevin's letter, the phone conversation Kevin and I had on February 28, 2011, and subsequent emails from both of you about Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club. The initial letter was addressed to the Ombudsman's office, and then sent on to the Community Funding Unit in Social Development Finance and Administration.

Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club has a variety of relationships with the City of Toronto, including being a grant recipient in the Community Service Partnership program and the Major Recreation program. As such, the Community Funding Unit has an interest in ensuring that this organization receiving our funds is working effectively to deliver quality programs and is capable of managing their resources and engaging the local community.

This letter provides an overview of the issues that we identified in investigating your complaint, and the approach we are taking to support the organization in addressing issues.

General assessment:

Our overall assessment is that the organization is dealing with a variety of significant issues, including external issues as well as internal ones. These include major renovations to the 180 Westmoreland location, difficult decisions related to discontinuing the 45 Ernest site, senior staff changes, new requirements for communicating with the community, and a need for board capacity building.

The organization is working to address its issues. Over the past 1-2 years, it has not always worked as effectively or as prudently as desired. The organization has continued to meet its core obligations to deliver the services they are funded for and has managed the major renovations at Westmoreland to a successful completion. Significant steps have been taken to improve decision-making for board and staff, and the board continues to work closely with United Way on capacity building, access to management resources and planning how to manage its responsibilities effectively.

Issues and status information:

Issues identified	Status
Board capacity	The organization is receiving support from United Way and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada in areas of board development, strategic planning and reviewing the organizational structure. New members have been recruited to the board with some specific skills.
Organization staffing	The organization has been encouraged to hire an Executive Director. We understand that this process will go ahead before the end of the year.
Services for kids in the Junction	The organization made a decision to close the location at 45 Ernest where the community expectation was that Junction area kids would be served there. About 50 Junction area kids are participating currently at other locations and enrolment from the Junction area continues to grow. Through an REOI process under the BMRS policy, the organization is recommended to occupy space at 1379 Bloor Street west for children's programming in the Junction. This resource will provide another site for addressing the local need for children's activities. DBGC is working in a new initiative with other local services for children and youth to increase access to kids programming in the area. The specific directions are being developed.
Communication with the community	The organization has been asked for a communications plan for how they will communicate information and discuss issues with the community.

Going forward:

In order to improve service to the Junction area, the club has expanded program activities and enrolled more Junction area youth than in the past. Additional programming for youth in the Junction has been proposed for the 1379 Bloor Street site.

The City will continue to work cooperatively with United Way to support DBGC's ability to meet community expectations for managing change and providing quality services to children and youth.

The recent emails from both of you have indicated a desire to meet to discuss the chronology and details of your concerns. If you would like to set up a meeting, please call me at 416-397-7302 to set up a time.

Sincerely,
Sue Kaiser
Manager, Community Funding