The pressing issues: United Way holds forum to hear from the community
Alaska Highway News
16 Nov 2006
By: Hardy Friedrich

EXCERPT

Emergency housing, housing for seniors and creating greater accessibility around town for seniors and people with disabilities are among the hottest issues facing Fort St. John, according to the results of a United Way forum on Tuesday night.

The forum, which is the first step that the United Way will use in order to decide how to allocate this year's funding, brought together representatives from 17 organizations in the city, from the Child Development Center (CDC) to Save Our Northern Seniors (SONS).

The United Way aims to raise $120,000 this year and deciding on which organizations receive the money is a difficult task, said the chair of the United Way Community Investment Committee...

Affordable child-care is number one on the CDC's priority list, and although it didn't crack the top four concerns, it was near the top.

"The main issue (the CDC) will be targeting is daycare," Furlong said. "It's a big issue - we even have concerns with our own employees having issues trying to get daycare to come back to work when they come back (from) maternity leave."...