It’s March!

Here are a few items of interest happening this month.

      Do you, or someone you know, need help with taxes?  The Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP) is a collaboration between community organizations and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).  Various community organizations host free tax preparation clinics and arrange for volunteers to complete tax returns for eligible individuals who have a modest income and simple tax situation.

For more information or to book an appointment please contact:

Volunteer Centre of Charlotte County

 vccststephen@outlook.com

506-466-4995

199 Union Street, St. Stephen

or

Karen Ouellette

kpouellette@gmail.com

 

      Grant Opportunity
Canada Service Corps- Projects for youth-serving organizations has extended their deadline for applications until April 3^rd 2018.  They are encouraging organizations from rural New Brunswick to apply.  For more information click Here.

 

      Free Community Easter Dinner, Saint Andrews

            In Partnership with the Saint Andrews Open Door Program

Open to the whole Community.  Everyone is Welcome!

            Monday, April 2^nd at 3:00pm

Anglican Parish Hall, 75 King Street, Saint Andrews

Please RSVP The Anglican Parish Office

Telephone: 529-8662  Email: allsaints@nb.aibn.com

 

      Southwest New Brunswick Smart Communities Workshop

            Thursday, March 22, 2018

St. Andrews, NB

            Municipal staff, elected officials, LSD representatives, business and non-   profit leaders from around Southwest New Brunswick are invited to work together to learn about the New Brunswick Smart Communities Project and work together to identify local and regional opportunities where technology may play a role in assisting progress.

To register click Here.

 

      Assisting Paturel Employees

TO ALL OUR COMMUNITIES IN CHARLOTTE COUNTY:
We have a long list of employees from Paturel registering for financial help urgently. Most of whom we hope will find new positions very shortly with other local companies. However, as always, there are processes that have to be   followed, and this takes time. If you are able to provide a financial donation,       please make a cheque payable to “St. George Food Bank” and mark ‘Paturel help’ on the memo line – it can be mailed to (or dropped off at) 124 Main Street, Suite 401, St. George, NB, EC5 3S3 (access through the back of the building).
This is an Urgent Request, as many have no income right now.  Thank you.

Thank you for all you do to make Charlotte County Vibrant!  

 

–Joy–

One point of clarification in our March Update.

 

It is the Multicultural Association of Charlotte County partnered with St. George Food Bank who have initiative a plan to help the Paturel Employees.  They are asking for community support at this time.  As noted before if you would like to make a financial donation please make a cheque payable to “St. George Food Bank” and mark ‘Paturel help’ on the memo line – it can be mailed to (or dropped off at) 124 Main Street, Suite 401, St. George, NB, EC5 3S3 (access through the back of the building).

 

If you have any questions or to find out more, please contact the Multicultural Association of Charlotte County at (506) 755-9295.

Thank you,

Joy

Dial-A-Ride

To: All Local Churches

We are in searching for volunteer drivers in ALL areas of Charlotte County. The ride requests are increasing every day, so we require additional volunteers to fill these requests.

How can you help? Any suggestions you have on spreading the word to the community would be much appreciated. If you are able to include information on Charlotte Dial a Ride (see below) during church service, church meetings, or in the church bulletin, it would be greatly appreciated. We have brochures that we can provide to you to display. If you would like our Executive Director, Dana Planetta, to come speak about Charlotte Dial a Ride, we can arrange a time convenient for you.

We drive members to dialysis, oncology, school, daycare, doctor and specialist appointments, and for so many other reasons. Some patients who would need to stay in hostel if we couldn’t drive them to treatment and back home. This would be impossible for one of our members who has a young child in school; she needs to be home after treatments. She told us it takes a lot of worry off her shoulders, especially under such frightening circumstances. Many people have specialist apts. in Saint John, and they can’t get there because of cost or no transportation. Before our service began 12 years ago, these individuals had to cancel because they had no access to affordable transportation.

We provide transportation to a lady from one community in Charlotte County to another to visit her family once a month. Without this ability to travel, she would be isolated from her family. It’s wonderful for persons to be able to get out to shop or socialize, especially during holiday seasons.

Another type of a drive is to travel to work. An autistic young man is driven from St. Stephen to the Algonquin four days a week from the spring until fall. He has worked at his job for several years and has never missed a day. Circumstances have changed and his parents are not able drive him to work. He really enjoys his job, and his father says it would be devastating to him, if he could not get to work.

So you see, volunteers make such a difference in people’s lives. We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without them!

General information about Charlotte Dial A Ride

Charlotte Dial a Ride is a charitable non-profit organization offering transportation services throughout Charlotte County to individuals without access to transportation due to affordability or remote location and those who need help due to a disability.  We drive for medical apts. education, social, shopping, etc. Hours of operation are Mon.–Fri. 8:30 am–5pm. We do not operate on week-ends or holidays. Our drivers are volunteers from the community. The volunteers use their own cars and are reimbursed 35 cents/km for mileage from their home and return. They decide if they are available to do a drive when asked. No schedule to keep; drives are by appointment only.

If you would like more information please call Dianne at 466-4444, drop by at 73 Milltown Blvd, St. Stephen or contact us by email – dispatcherdialaride@nb.aibn.com  and we will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Dianne Young, Administrative Assistant/Dispatcher

Charlotte Dial a Ride

 

I had the privilege of interviewing our very own Jeremy Barham for Vibrant Communities Canada.  Jeremy and I talk about the ins-and-outs of Business Bootcamp as a replicable, scalable model of collaborative poverty reduction and local economic development.  Check it out here.

Joy Benson Green
Community Coordinator/Coordonnatrice Communautaire
Vibrant Communities Charlotte County/Comté de Charlotte
Tel: (506) 660-0805
Email:  joy@vibrantcc.ca

Working Together to Reduce Poverty/
La réduction de la pauvreté, c’est l’affaire de tous!