For over 25 years, the Centre for Community Organizations (COCo) has supported community organizations who are driven by their vital missions, yet are all too often restricted by little means and limited resources. Every day, we witness firsthand the strength, creativity, and resilience of our community sector… but also the limitations imposed by chronic underfunding.
Today, we are adding our voice to the #LeCommunautaireEstÀBoutte movement.
Like so many organizations across Quebec, we witness and experience the very real impacts of precarious funding: excessive workloads, organizational instability, difficulty maintaining fair and humane working conditions, and constant pressure to do more with less.
At COCo, this reality leads us to continually ask ourselves:
- How can we ease this financial pressure and prioritize our well-being in the complex work we do on the ground?
- How can we sustainably support our governance structure and our team with decent (and not just “living”) wages?
- How can we remain committed to an anti-oppressive approach while navigating a context of scarce resources?
Despite these challenges, we remain committed to supporting groups working for greater equity, social justice, and dignity.
But it is clear that this can no longer rely solely on the community sector’s ability to adapt. The community sector is at its limit!
📢 Community-based services are not a waste of resources. Community-based services can no longer survive in a world and a culture where our expertise, autonomy, and front-line role are not fully recognized. We are an essential pillar of our society. It is time to ensure mission-based funding that is stable and commensurate with our needs… we must act now!
✊ We stand in solidarity with the thousands of workers mobilizing across Quebec. Because supporting the community sector means supporting our communities. ✊ Because without the community sector and our shrinking social safety net, we crumble.
Like Angela Davis said, “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept”.
Join the protests and let’s keep making our voices heard.
