WESTLOCK – Murtaza Jamaly, a Town of Westlock councillor since 2015, is the newly-minted president of the Family and Community Support Services Association of Alberta (FCSSAA), a role that immediately thrust him into the spotlight at a Nov. 23 press conference in Calgary that saw the provincial government announce $10 million in food bank funding over the next two years.
Jamaly, who’s served as the northeastern rep on the 15-member FCSSAA board for the last three years and chairs the Westlock and District FCSS advisory board, said when he learned that the past president was leaving the organization, he first spoke with his fellow town councillors and administration and even the local FCSS staff about the presidency and whether it “made for sense for us as a community” to let his name stand. Following, the 31-year-old then began canvassing other members of the association and wound up winning the presidency during the final day of the organization’s annual conference held Nov. 16-18 in Edmonton.
It's been a “bit of a whirlwind” for him since, with a board meeting following his election, followed by a call from the provincial government that same night to attend the presser— he took a bus to Calgary early Wednesday morning, flew back in the afternoon, and then drove to Cold Lake that night for another meeting. Sandwiched in between was an FCSSAA emergency board meeting Nov. 21, plus a town committee of the whole meeting that night.
“And here I am today trying to represent the organization and represent the region well, so it’s been a busy few days,” said Jamaly late afternoon Nov. 23. “In the six days I’ve been in the role I’ve spent 30 hours doing work, which is definitely a lot. But I don’t expect the province is going to have an emergency ask of us every week.”
Jamaly, who expects some changes to the local committees he serves on as councillor due to his new position, said they have a “very strong” council and administration at the town and is in “the envious position of not having a divisive table” and “can always trust that the work gets done.” He also knows that being the president of the FCSSAA will shine a spotlight on Westlock FCSS and they look forward to it.
“I’m excited for our program and I think it will be a great thing. I think there’s going to be a lot to write about FCSS in the new year that I’m really looking forward to,” he said.
Formally established in 1981, the FCSSAA is “a member-driven organization dedicated to bringing FCSS programs from across the province together.” The website says the organization provides the “platform for our member programs to connect and collaborate, so they can speak with one informed and credible voice to all their stakeholders.”
“My work with the FCSSAA over the past few years has been trying to define that, as I think for the longest time the organization didn’t know that itself. Ultimately, we are the advocacy group for all FCSS programs across the province,” he explained.
“We do things like provide resources, connect different FCSS programs together, data collection and outcome measurement and provide training opportunities and connect FCSS directors together through the directors’ network.
“But really the most important part is advocacy and for prevention programs across the province — that’s our job. And we’re the ones advocating for the funding increases and advocating on things like the Alberta Supports file. That is our core responsibility through and through.”
$20M for food security
Jamaly joined Alberta Seniors, Community and Social Services and Affordability and Utilities ministers Jeremy Nixon and Matt Jones, plus Food Bank Alberta CEO Arianna Scott and Michael Pasma, president of the Calgary Food Bank, at the Nov. 23 funding announcement which will see the province provide $20 million over two years, with the first $5 million distributed in the coming weeks and the second $5 million allocated for use in 2022-23 — in addition for each year, $5 million will be used for a matching donation campaign, helping spark community involvement.
While Jamaly said the program’s finer details will be ironed out in the coming weeks, it’s telling the FCSSAA was selected to participate as the organization was previously responsible for doling out the province’s emergency COVID-19 funding and “to use the province’s own words, we’re a victim of our own success.”
That said, Jamaly did admit it was a bit of an “odd ask” for the FCSSAA to be involved as FCSS is meant to provide preventative programs and can’t use its dollars to buy food for people in need, but said premier Danielle Smith made the request to have them involved which “bodes well for our organization.”
“Our association knocked it out of the park when it came to providing food bank funding and not-for-profit funding from the province during COVID and they really like our local lens,” said Jamaly. “The reason why they’re asking us is because we have an understanding of what the need is locally better than anybody. We’re boots on the ground, and we represent communities and local needs.
“Now, how it’s going to get divvied up, I don’t know yet, but we’re working on it. We’re going to assess need and start trying to figure out what the granting requirements are. I think the hope is to get the dollars out the door by Christmas, which is going to be really hard, but I think we’ll figure it out.”
Ultimately, Jamaly said he’s happy that rural food banks will have an opportunity to apply for funding and “obviously we’ll do whatever we can to ensure those dollars flow locally” and is thrilled the program will provide dollars to other “food security” initiatives.
“We know there’s a lot of people struggling right now who don’t use the food bank because of the stigma attached to it. But across the province there are hot-lunch programs, community kitchens … a lot of organizations that specialize in food security that aren’t food banks who will be able to access the funding as well,” he continued. “So, I’m really excited to see what innovation looks like and how people address the challenges of food security through other measures aside from a food bank.”
