It’s going to be an uphill battle for the Saugeen Sustainability and Volunteer Resource Centre to be sustainable itself.
That’s the findings from a Needs Analysis Survey conducted by SMART Project Management.
Consultant Gerry Taylor was hired by the Centre to do the study with money from an Ontario Trillium Grant.
But Taylor believes it’s going to be difficult for the organization to be sustainable in the future — and the main struggle will be financially.
He says they need to digest the report and come up with a strategy to draw revenue in order to continue educating the public about sustainability projects.
Taylor believes one way of doing that is by building partnerships with local companies involved with green and sustainable initiatives.
But for now, the recommendation is for the centre to rely on a heavy online presence, and to use social media to continue educating the public.
On the other side of the survey, Taylor says there was a very positive response to volunteerism in the community.
He says Saugeen Shores is unique because even though the population is just over 11 thousand, there are 110 volunteer organizations in the community.
He says the one repeated suggestion was a need to recognize the volunteers either with a fair or a yearly event that brings all the volunteers together.
However, Taylor says only 1.38 per cent of the population responded to the survey, and most of the online surveys were distributed through e-mail lists of volunteer organizations.
