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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1985-09-25, Page 31,tn�th'irt� gob 198 r 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. 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