Urban Indigenous organizations ramp up services on tight budgets – Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Central Urban Metis Federation Inc. president Shirley Isbister says her staff have never worked so hard.
CUMFi has drastically scaled up its work to fill the gap left by other services that have closed due to COVID-19. Staff are sewing masks, cooking food for the homeless, delivering groceries for elders and even making Easter baskets for children in lieu of their annual egg hunt.
The organization’s capacity “is stretched way past the limit,” Isbister said.
“There’s so many things that we’re doing that it’s really hard to keep everything up. We need capacity.”
While urban First Nations and Metis community groups say demand for their services has never been higher, they haven’t seen any sign of relief from either provincial or federal partners, causing concern their clients have slipped through “jurisdictional cracks.”
