Annual Report 2010 - Resource Assistance for Youth

President’s Report
Once in a while you have to take a break and visit yourself.
~Audrey Giorgi
This past year has been a year of significant changes. We have been operational in our new building for over a
year now. The new facilities have meant a great deal to the youth that we serve. We are open longer hours, and
the Executive Director’s report indicates the new and varied ways we have developed to better serve the young
people who rely on RaY to find their voice, support, and advocacy in their determination to live a cleaner straighter
life.
It is the task of the Board to make sure that the resources are available to our staff to develop and implement the
strategies that are most effective, and make the most sense. The past five years have been years of change and
growth. We have grown in staff, budget, and programs. In this sense, we have been successful. The move to the
new building, which was built through the generous support of the corporate sector in our city, is the culmination of
that growth.
The next year will be a year of reflection and repositioning ourselves to move forward. We need, as a board, and
as an agency, to take time to examine how much growth we can sustain, and how much change we are willing to
undergo in order to make that growth possible. As a board, we have to ask ourselves two simple questions, “What
have we gained?” and “What have we lost?” as we developed and grew to this point. We then need to evaluate our
responses. What of that which we have lost is good to have lost, and what should we strive to retrieve? We also
need to explore what we have gained, and ask which are good gains, and which gains need to be replaced? In
short, we need to take some time and visit ourselves to make sure that we do not lose touch with our roots, that we
do not lose the edge that makes us effective.
At the same time, we need to continue to grow. A continuation of the capital campaign is in the final planning
stages. Like most agencies in the non-profit sector, we are continuously looking for ways in which we can secure
stable and sustainable funding for our programs. This continues to be the biggest challenge we face.
This has also been a year of changes in the RaY family. Lynn Thomson, our long time addictions worker died in
January, and Pam Belair, our bookkeeper died in December. Both of these deaths hit the whole RaY family quite
hard. The transition to being without them, and the period of grief has been difficult.
In one sense, I am very lucky. The management team and staff of RaY are a phenomenal group of caring, innovative
and dedicated staff. We as a board, for the most part, have to stay out of their way and watch things happen. I
am also indebted to one of the best boards in the non-profit sector that spans a number of different constituencies
from labour to board rooms and places in between. Their wisdom and support makes it easy to be the Board Chair.
I wish to publicly thank the board, staff, and youth for their efforts at making RaY what it is.
I wish to thank all those who support us morally and financially for making it possible.
Respectfully submitted,
R. David Lowe
President