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A Human Resource Centre
Illy Mary Malone
Sheila Davenport began
her social service career
30 years ago in
Toronto's welfare
department, learning
quickly what she
describes as "really front-line
basic social work — we were
dealing with people who needed,
very primary things like shelter
and food."
Davenport, a nominee in the
London, Ontario, YM -YWCA's
women of distinction awards
last year, became director of
London's urban resource centre,
a unique co-operative social'
agency, in 1983.
The London Urban Resource
Centre (LURC) is an umbrella
agency that provides physical
space and basic office services
for 22 local agencies. Some
cater to the needs of women,
children, youth, the elderly, the
disabled and certain ethnic
groups. Also under the umbrella
are medical and psyc iatric
support groups and
organizations concer d with
unemployment, housing and
human rights.
After herwelfarework in
Toronto and in children's aid in
Ottawa and a hospital for the
mentally retarded in England,
Davenport returned to Canada
in 1962 to settle in London,
where she did part-time medical
social work while raising a
family of four.
Over the years, she has
maintained an active profile as a
volunteer and board member on
several local organizations
before taking up her most recent
appointment as director of the
London Urban Resource Centre.
Davenport's family is solidly
academic. Her father, Sidney
Smith, was president of the
universities;of Toronto and
Manitoba; her husband of 28
years, Alan Davenport, is
director of the Boundary Wind
Tunnel project in the
engineering department at the
University of Western Ontario;
one son works as a political
scientist, another is studying
engineering, one daughter is in
medical school and the younger
daughter, according to her
mother, "is going to be all •
three." Sheila Davenport herself
has earned a reputation as a
practical manager.
Considering the diversity of
her own working history, it's
not surprising that Davenport
says what she enjoys most about
her responsibilities at LURC is
the sheer variety. "There's some
direct delivery of services, some
community activism and some
administration. I'm a very
practical person, in some ways,
and this position gives me the
feeling of being able to
contribute my experience."
Ormah Gibson, founder of
the school of social work at
U WOA and a woman whom
Davenport describes as "a prime
mover behind a lot of social
work activity in London," was
Davenport's immediate
predecessor in the head position
at LURC.
Now a project officer with the
employment branch of the
Canada Employment and
Immigration Centre, Gibson
describes Davenport's style of
leadership as "a bit of an iron
fist in a velvet glove. She's
diplomatic, but she knows the
direction she wants to head.
She's a creative thinker who
wants second opinions, other
people's suggestions. Sheila has
been able to reach out into the
community to get people
interested and involved in the
centre."
LURC itself is not
government funded, except for
occasional special grants, such
as one that they are now using
to construct more offices. They
support themselves through
fund-raising, the rent they
receive from their member
groups and that mainstay of
most nonprofit organizations —
bingo. "Whatwould we do
without bingo?" asks
Davenport. "I don't know."
LURC celebrated its 10th
anniversary last year, and
Davenport and her colleagues
have noticed shifts during the
decade in popular and funding
support in London for different
kinds of social causes.
;Organizations concerned with
contraception and abortion
referral, and those dealing with
enviromental issues and
pollution control are less visible
today than they were a decaade
ago. It is groups dealing with
the needs of women, children
and the disabled that have
moved into the limelight.
But she observes that
programs directed at youths (15
to 24 years old), particularly
unemployed youths, are
currently attracting the most
attention and funding.
One of LURC's most vital
agencies at the moment is Youth
Opportunities Unlimited (YOU),
a program designed to teach
fundamental social skills and
hard job search techniques to
unemployed people under 25.
The program is receiving(
healthy funding because,
according to director Peggy °
Bottom, an increasing number
of people are becoming
concerned about the long-range
consequences of youth
unemployment.
"We are already dealing with
young people who don't know.
how to work," says Bottom.
"Perhaps they lack the role
models of regular work as an
ethic. There is a good chance
that if something isn't done
right now to get work for the
large number of unemployed
youth, we're looking at a future
of long-term social assistance
needs:"
Because LURC embraces such
a broad scope of services,
Davenport is also in a position
to spot new social problems
before the general public might
become aware of them. One
that she is particularly worried
about right now is the plight of
London's homeless.
Recognizing that the city has
an unusually poor selection of
rental accommodations for
those at the lower end of the
economic scale, LURC has
recently established the Housing
Registry, an office that inspects
and lists affordable rooms and
apartments for people on fixed
incomes, and matches tenants
with landlords.
Despite the theory that
Canada's new Charter of Rights
and Freedoms prevents various
kinds of discrimination,
roadblocks continue to exist in
the real world, and the Housing
Registry tries to work around
them. Please turn to page 4
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