Want to do something meaningful?
You can save an organization.
I’m not kidding and I’m not exaggerating.
Recently, I interviewed Rodney Baker, who is the Executive Director of Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA Simon Fraser Branch) in New Westminster, BC.
In the last year, CMHA has been “staggered” by massive funding cuts and kinks in their previous business model.
How are they going to recover?
Rodney told me that volunteers will save CMHA.
And saving CMHA isn’t really the point – but saving the work that CMHA does in the community is.
Rodney’s e-mail signature says it, in just a few words:
Help and Hope for Mental Wellness
But if more words are necessary, here they are, straight from CMHA’s site:
- CMHA provides Supported Independent Living and Community Living Support. Both the Supported Independent Living (SIL) and the Community Living Support (CLS) programs provide practical support to clients living in their own apartments and transitioning to independent living. SIL programs also provide rent subsidies.
- CMHA provides Transitional Housing. Simon Fraser Branch operates 4 transition houses and 1 apartment which support clients to acquire the necessary skills to live independently in the community. These residences have staff attached to them.
- CMHA provides Youth Semi Independent Living. The mandate of this program is to provide housing and support to youth who are 16-21 years old, who have a mental illness and are unable to live with family.
And all of this is supported by revenue from a volunteer-staffed store. Volunteers are the backbone of CHMA’s work.
As Rodney explained to me.
Kelly Diels, CVC: Hi, Rodney. This is Kelly Diels calling from CVC…How are you?
Rodney Baker, CMHA: I’m surviving.
Kelly: Surviving is good. Is now a good time? Should I call you later?
Rodney: No, no, it’s a fine time. Nice to have someone positive. Yeah.
[laughter]
Kelly: So you’re surviving. This is good. What are you surviving? What battles are you fighting?
Rodney: Well, first off, the thrift store scheduler broke her ankle.
Kelly: Oh, no.
Rodney: So I’m having to fill in the workers and we were short anyway.
Kelly: Oh, no.
Rodney: My accountant has also broken his ankle.
Kelly: Oh my goodness.
Rodney: Yeah. It’s very popular around here. I’m ready to send out a notice.
Kelly: “Please watch where you’re walking.”
Rodney: Yeah, from this point on, breaking your ankle won’t be tolerated.
[laughter]
Rodney: So I have to pick him up and deliver him to work and back again. I’m now the taxi driver, but that’s to be expected. He’s an important guy. He writes the cheques.
Kelly: Oh, he’s very important.
Rodney: Anyway, it’s been kind of interesting. So it’s nice to talk to someone who is problem free for a moment.
[laughter]
Kelly: I bring you no problems. I just want to hear all about yours. Actually, I’d love to hear about CMHA’s thrift store.
Rodney: I’ll give you a brief history if you want…I arrived at CMHA in 2004. I found out the finances were not quite as explained before I took the job.
Kelly: Oh, dear. What did you do?
Rodney: I tried to get my old job back, but I couldn’t. [laughs] So I made a number of cuts. Then I decided to open a thrift store. It was in an awful location in New Westminster where Brunette meets Columbia. So it was a really bad corner. So we were right on that corner. It was like a Mecca for trucks somehow.
Kelly: I know exactly where you’re talking about. It’s not foot-traffic friendly.
Rodney: So if the trucks couldn’t make the turn they’d run into our building. One flipped over one day and crushed a tree.
It wasn’t a great location. The parking lot was in the back. There was a bunch of stone steps coming down, but I thought, well, we have this space anyway. So I’ll get volunteers and I’ll see if we get enough donations. See if we get enough customers. See if we get enough whatever.
It kind of worked.
The first hours opened we did $88.00 in business. So I thought, well, that’s $88.00 dollars we didn’t have before.
Plus it kind of gave us a handshake with the community because the work we do is not really advertised in the community. We run some houses, but we don’t put a sign up saying “people with mental illness live here”. So people don’t really know who we are or what we do. The thrift store is something that gives us a bit of a face in the community.
Kelly: Right. And a public space, too.
Rodney: Yes. And it has our sign on it…The first day I was on the till, I never ran a till before. That was good. Then the next day someone said, oh, you made this mistake. You charged $20.00 too much. I said, okay, fine, here. But that woman is still coming to our store today so it was probably a really good move.
So that was in 2005. Then I found a beautiful heritage house on 4th Avenue and we moved into this beautiful heritage house. We had the thrift store in the basement. Sales really, really picked up.
Kelly: Really?
Rodney: Yeah. That was on 4th Avenue. Then I decided to take a year off when my mother wasn’t doing well in England. I had a few other things to look after. And a person took over my job and closed the thrift store in the house. Moved out of the house which we could have bought. It was up for sale.
Kelly: Oh, dear.
Rodney: And they started a new thrift store with a full-time staff person. Previously it was run by volunteers. One not-very-well-paid part-time manager. And a new overhead it was $4,850.00 per month plus a full-time manager at very high wages . So the store lost $30,000.00 in a year.
Kelly: Oh, no.
Rodney: That was on Carnavron Street and we just paid $42,000.00 to get out of the lease because it would have broke us if we stayed there. So we moved to the current location and we’re going to move into offices behind it as soon as the permits and stuff are ready.
Kelly: What about the store? Is the store open?
Rodney: The store is open. It’s been open for a couple months probably. It’s doing really, really, really well.
Kelly: That’s fantastic.
Rodney: Of course now that it’s doing so well we need more volunteers.
[laughter]
Kelly: This is why we’re talking.
Rodney: Yeah. Yeah. It’s a nice place to work. People are friendly and lots of people come in. So it’s a good when people come in and, say “oh, this is great!” Thrift stores are kind of funky. You never know what you’ll find there.
Kelly: Right.
Rodney: …It’s a really nice space. It’s nice and bright and big ceilings and it’s got a really big back room. So there’s lot of place for storage. So it’s ideal and it’ll actually be the thing that saves this organization because we had huge cuts [from funding sources] last year. Plus the money we lost at the other store and the fee we had to pay to get out of it. We are literally staggering, you know?
Kelly: So this the revenue from this store is pretty significant to your organization?
Rodney: This store will actually save us. If we get enough volunteers.
Kelly: How many volunteers do you need?
Rodney: 147. No, just kidding.
[laughter]
Kelly: I was like, good lord. That’s quite a store.
Rodney: We can probably use about 10 more competent people – because even though we have a great bunch of people, they do get sick and break their ankles.
So there you have it. Volunteers are everything to an organization like CMHA, and they need you. (Preferably with all your bones intact.)
PS – if you want to hear about what it is like to work at CMHA’s thrift store, Vi Meech has some stories to tell…
photo credit: from CMHA
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I love this interview. Inspiring re the power of volunteers and great to read the thoughts of a crackerjack Executive Director who also gets the power of volunteers who are motivated by a cause. The CMHA is such a positive force in recognizing and supporting people through periods of mental illness. I can’t wait to go get my thrift on at the new location!
Keep up the GREAT work Rodney, I know first hand just what great work you do! Yes volunteers can play a huge part in helping a non-profit. Great interview!