Core funding impact story: Girls Action Foundation

What is your organization’s mission/how does it serve its community?

Girls Action Foundation promotes and supports the independence, leadership and healthy development of girls, young women, and gender diverse youth by giving them access to more resources and opportunities.

What impact does a lack of core funding have on your organization’s ability to serve your community and pursue its mission?

The lack of core funding has a direct impact on our organization’s ability to serve our community and pursue our mission. Due to financial unpredictability, we cannot offer long-term programming which, in turn, makes it difficult for us to maintain a consistent relationship with our community.

What impact does a lack of core funding have on your organization’s staff and long-term sustainability?

All our employees are contract workers, and hiring is completely dependent on the funding we receive for individual projects. The lack of stability it creates is not conducive to good working conditions and generates a high turnover among our staff, which endangers our organization’s long-term sustainability as it is difficult to pass on knowledge when employees only stay a short while. Projects we implement can rarely be extended, even though our community has indicated through consultations that our projects are essential to their well-being, the advancement of social justice, and the breaking of the cycles of oppression endured by girls, young women, and gender diverse youth. After over 25 years serving girls and young women from the most marginalized communities, we had to reduce our activities. Although our national organization was active throughout Canada before the pandemic, we have had to limit our action to the Greater Montréal Area since then. The sustainability of our organization is very much at risk, and we do not even know whether we will be able to offer programs and services in 2023-24, despite the high demand and ever-evolving needs of our communities.

What else would you do if you had more core funding? Who else would you serve?

If our organization had core funding, we would hire qualified staff, strengthen our basic operations, and continue to offer our core programs over the long term. Our five-year strategic and sustainability plan includes finding core funding to improve work conditions and keep our employees, so we can follow up on our actions. In addition, core funding would help us target causes that are important to our community, including increasing our rights advocacy and representation with the government.

Naoual Laaroussi, Communications Manager
Girls Action Foundation, Montréal QC