Clik here to view.
Glori Meldrum of Little Warriors. Photo: Facebook.
Little Warriors preparing application for Be Brave Ranch funding
Albertans, take a deep breath. The controversy surrounding Little Warriors and Be Brave Ranch for sexually abused children is largely a huge misunderstanding.
The issue has been burbling along for almost a year now, after the sponsoring agency, Little Warriors of Edmonton, applied for funding from the Alberta Government and was turned down. Former NHL star and sexual abuse survivor and advocate Theo Fleury got involved, criticizing the government for its decision and vowing to raise money himself to fund the ranch, which would be the only in-patient treatment facility in the province for young sexual abuse victims.
Clik here to view.
Alison Lee, 15-year old sexual abuse survivor from Coaldale, Alta. Photo: Screen capture.
It flaired up again last week when 15-year old Alison Lee, a sexual abuse victim from Coaldale, Alta. posted an emotional video (see below) recounting her meeting with Premier Alison Redford, during which she pleaded for funding for the Be Brave Ranch. According to young Alison, Redford was pretty callous and insensitive, dismissing her request and pointing out that Alberta spends money on mental health in Calgary and Edmonton, which ought to be sufficient.
The video quickly became a news media and social media sensation.
Shayne Saskiw of the Wildrose demanded that “It’s time for the Premier and the Minister to stop making excuses for leaving the Be Brave Ranch out in the cold”?
Fleury took to Facebook to denounce Redford, saying the government is “doing nothing to provide services for survivors of childhood sexual abuse” and accusing it of turning down Meldrum’s requests for meetings.
Why wouldn’t it? Child sexual abuse victims deserve our compassion and support, as much as we can give of it. And Little Warriors and its chief executive officer, Glori Meldrum, herself a survivor of abuse, are volunteers who want nothing more than to help those poor kids and give them a better life.
But like most sensational story lines, the truth is often much more mundane.
I’ll admit, the meeting between the two Alisons is a tough one to call. The Premier is known to be standoffish and occasionally condescending, and she may not have handled the meeting with the clearly emotional Ms. Lee as tactfully as she could have, despite the assertion by local MLA Bridget Pastoor that the conversation was “very civil.” The young lady is articulate and the video is a real heart-breaker.
Clik here to view.
Dave Hancock, Alberta Minister of Human Services.
Maybe the best way to view this story is by concentrating on the facts around the Little Warriors application. As Human Service Minister Dave Hancock has said on a number of occasions, most recently in the repost of a blog from the spring, the application was deficient.
“Little Warriors has not provided research, evidence, nor a delivery and treatment plan to indicate that the ranch would produce the outcomes the organization is looking for,” he wrote.
Meldrum told me in an interview that Little Warriors is assembling the information requested by the department and hopes to invite Hancock to their November AGM where they will present it to him. The organization is working with researchers at the University of Alberta and she is confident that this time they’ll have all the information required by the government.
“The grant application has not been denied and remains open,” Hancock wrote in his blog.
So, where’s the beef?
There really isn’t much of one.
Clik here to view.
Glori Meldrum of Little Warriors.
Meldrum complains that Hancock says the application is open and the government wants to work with Little Warriors, but in a letter dated Dec. 12 2012 Assistant Deputy Minister Shannon Marchand of the culture department wrote that programs “continue to be oversubscribed” and there was no money left.
From Meldrum’s point of view, the government is talking out of both sides of its mouth. But not necessarily. Most program funding is spent late in the fiscal year. Just because money wasn’t available in 2012/13 doesn’t mean it won’t be in 2013/14 or a subsequent year.
Meldrum also says communication with Hancock’s department is poor and she often learns about their application in the media, rather than from bureaucrats.
Ok, maybe the government could communicate better, but that seems to be the nature of government bureaucracies. Human Services spokesperson Craig Loewen told me the department has been speaking to Meldrum.
Bottom line, the file is still open and Little Warriors is busy completing its application.
Projects like the Be Brave Ranch that rely on public funding never progress in a straight line. There are always zigs and zags as they wend their way through the convoluted process that appears to proponents as if it’s designed only to frustrate, but in reality is meant to properly vet applications and ensure tax money is well spent.
As I wrote at the beginning of this column, let’s all take a deep breath and relax.
Little Warriors and Meldrum are busy doing what was asked of them. The information will be submitted in due course.
If you want to do something useful to support Be Brave Ranch, write, email or call your MLA. Show your support for a very worthwhile project that will help put broken kids back together.
But leave emotion out of it for now. It won’t make the bureaucrats approve Be Brave Ranch any quicker and turning the project into a political football may have the opposite effect.