There will be some changes to Westlock’s Santa’s Anonymous program this year to prevent abuse of the system that organizers have seen in the past.
Westlock Family & Community Support Services administers the program, and director Jayme Baxter said the eligibility requirements have been tightened to make sure the help goes to people who need it — applicants will now have to prove residency and income to be eligible.
“The purpose of this is not to deter people who actually need it, it’s to deter people who are abusing it,” she said.
About $26,000 worth of food hampers and toys were given out to 702 individuals and families in 2011, and although Baxter has no way of determining exactly how many of those recipients were taking advantage of the system, she knows anecdotally that it was not uncommon.
“We found a lot of people from out of the county were coming to get it, and we were also finding that a lot of people who could afford Christmas were still getting it from us just because they could,” she said.
While the program’s administrators knew that there were people abusing the system — whether by coming from out of the area, not meeting the unwritten low-income requirement or even having different people from the same household come in to get two hampers instead of one — there was no official policy on the books so they had no way of putting a stop to it.
This year, the policy states the recipients must live within the Town of Westlock, Westlock County or Clyde.
Annual incomes must be under $25,000 for individuals and $28,000 for couples, although those amounts increase by $1,500 for each dependent child in the family.
The new policies are aligned with those set out by 630 CHED in Edmonton, the founders of the Santa’s Anonymous program there.
There is a provision, however, that a social services agency such as the Hope Resource Centre or Health Families Healthy Futures can refer clients to the program so they don’t have to prove their income.
That decision was made because there are circumstances where last year’s income doesn’t reflect this year’s situation — if a family has left an abusive situation or is dealing with addictions issue, for example.
“There are some people who can make $100,000 and still might not be able to afford Christmas for their kids, so we have put a caveat in here that a referring agency can refer people then their financial information is not required,” Baxter said.
All the money for Santa’s Anonymous is donated, whether from individuals, businesses, service organizations or fundraisers.
Several large fundraisers are planned to support the program this year — the biggest one coming up is the “Ain’t No Rodeo” Christmas party scheduled for Nov. 24.
Baxter said she had been planning a gala event to raise money for Santa’s Anonymous, but changed plans when she discovered there was another event that night.
“We didn’t want to compete,” she said.
“We’re partnering with Ain’t No Rodeo for their office Christmas Party, and we’re doing our silent and live auctions there.”
Further down the line, hypnotist Wayne Lee will be coming to town on Jan. 26, 2013 for a fundraiser.
