Inflation worries Y.W.C.A.

Press, 7 December 1976, Page 20

Inflation worries Y.W.C.A.

Inflation is an increasing barrier to progress for the Young Women’s Christian Association. Lack of funds now prevent it from expanding several of its Christchurch programmes which have been designed to serve the needs of women and families in the 19705. /

At present its mobile preschool is on the road three days a week. Next year the Y.W. would like to make it a five-day-a-week service. The need, says its executive director, Mrs Anne Paine, is growing in new housing areas and among new innercity flats. But money is the problem. i The after-school care programmes it establishes, (mostly for children of worki ing parents, is also worthy of expansion, she says. Funds for qualified staff to organise programmes at schools are limited. Plans are now under way to redecorate the Y.W. hosI tel in Latimer Square. The ' state of the economy seems Ito have affected its use, oc-i I cupancy rates are well down I this year.

‘‘Young girls just don’t have the monye to travel around seeing the country,’’ says Mrs Paine.

Rejuvenation of the hostel will cost thousands of dollars. At present its rooms, mostly single, serve travellers of all ages, single girls moving into the city from the country, or students. It provides casual and permanent lodgings, with some rooms for travelling couples and family accommodation during the holidays. An appraisal of the hostel’s future is going on now. The executive, says Mrs Paine, is considering to what use the accommodation can beSt be put. “We have to ask ourselves what the girls living there would do if there were no hostel. We must also consider how we can make it more attractive in the 19705.” Whatever the occupancy rates, the Y.W. must maintain the staff and essential services. “We cannot afford to run it if it is not paying its way,” she says.

“IN THE RED’’ The hostel’s budget for 1977 is $55,000. The execu-

tive expects it to be “in the red” about S3OOO to S4OOO. “We don’t have an unlimited bank account. There are just no easy answers.” Neither is there an easy answer to meeting the needs of many pre-school children in Christchurch. The Y.W.’s van transports all the equipment needed for a pre-school centre to locations in Brom-i ley, Aranui, and St John's; Mission, in Latimer Square.) The service costs S3OOO a year to run. It receives no! Government subsidy. The mobile pre-school does not compete with exist-! ing services. Uusually the Y.W. is invited into an area by mothers concerned at the lack of a pre-school.) Often its arrival precedes the eventual establishment, of a permanent centre. Mothers bring their children to wherever the van sets

up its centre. Because of their involvement, premises that would be considered unsuitable for an established centre can be used. About 150 children are catered for in all. Mrs Paine is aware that many are mising out. “It takes organisation and money to get a kindergarten or playcentre set up, and that takes timp,” she says. So many of our housing areas have no nearby preschool centre yet.” Throughout the three years the service has been running the Y.W. has been applying for Government aid, without success. It has just taken on a trained kindergarten teacher, Mrs Pauline McSkimming, to comply with conditions for aid.

“It is right that we should have a qualified teacher, but as always money has been our problem. If we expand the service to five days a week that will mean more money for petrol, more wear and tear on the van, higher salaries. It’s a worry,” says Mrs Paine. CLOTHES SHOP One source of steady income for the Y.W. is its clothes shop, the Nearly! New Shop. On Tuesday's,' ; Wednesdays, and Fridays a group of volunteer workers I runs the shop, selling’ clothes in good condition from the Latimer Square : ■Y.W. headquarters. The iseiler keeps three-fifths of the proceeds front the sale of garments brought in, the : Y.W. the balance. Next year the shop will! expand into another room.l

I The organiser, Mrs Audrey I Reynolds, who is the Y.W.’s i treasurer, wants to extend I the shop’s hours. She would t welcome any additions to its > band of more than 20 volunr teer staffers. : One of the contributions > the Y.W. makes to women, Mrs Paine, maintains, is that it harnesses their energies in a voluntary capacity. Par- ■ ticularly when the new ; Superannuation scheme : comes in next year there- , will, she believes, be a large; i number of women who have > many useful years of service /to contribute. i The Y.W. is working hard /to provide programmes that : meet the needs of a modern t woman’s life style. It is con-, ? sidering introducing classes : from 5.30 to 6.30 p.m. which! women could attend immedi-j I ately after work. Next year! . the River Runners jogging!

club will get underway. It will cater for lunch-time I joggers who want to get fit i with a run round the river and back to the Y.W. headquarters. It is also organising a modern dance and exercise , class for mothers with preschool children. The children will be able to join in with thier mothers and “everyone will get fit together.” Babies will be able to sit or sleep out the dance in the creche. But it all takes money. It is getting harder to make what there is go around. Right now the Y.W. is busy working toward its annual . appeal and stall in Cathedral i Square this Friday, Decemi her 10. This is their major fund-raising effort. The stall -will be selling everything |from home-made cakes and(produce to good used