A Black Diamond woman is backing away from an initiative that gives residents in distress a safe refuge due to a lack of volunteers.
The Diamond Valley Block Parent program is folding after Gail Fagan found no one willing to take over running the non-profit group.
Fagan revived the Block Parent program in Black Diamond and Turner Valley in 2016. She’s now collecting the distinctive red and white signs from approximately 40 volunteers in the community. Fagan’s goal was to see signs in 50 homes near C. Ian McLaren School in Black Diamond and another 30 around Turner Valley School to the west.
“My whole intention was two years ago to get it up and running and have other people take it over,” she Fagan, co-chair of the non-profit organization. “We’re disappointed. We put out various pleas and people won’t step up. It’s too bad.”
Fagan said recent health issues have prevented her from taking an active role and that those who helped her get it going have become busy with their families and work.
“I’ve got some severe injuries I’m dealing with and I can’t drive,” she said. “I’m retiring after years of volunteering. It got tiresome. It became very clear that, while a few people were very interested and stepped up, it was not enough people.”
Fagan made the decision in January to call it quits.
“It was frustrating for me because it’s such a simple, easy, free program,” she said. “There is nothing you can do about it.”
With only 40 people with signs in their homes, Fagan said it wasn’t enough to bother educating children in local elementary schools about the Block Parent program. She added that none of the participants had anyone utilize the program since it was revived.
“I set the goal of 80 to 100 and having them close to the schools so the kids can see them and we can get to the education program but that just never happened,” she said. “Little kids have got to see the signs everywhere for them to remember.
“We did not get enough homes to be able to take the education program into classes.”
Fagan said she tried to make it easy for people to sign up by having the RCMP available in the evening for people to get their mandatory police record checks completed. She even had booths at community events to spread the word, but to no avail.
“It had closed down once before here and I just thought a little bit of energy might help,” she said. “This is such a common sense thing and it’s really not hard. You have to find 20 minutes to get into the police station every two years. I didn’t see any way I could make it easier.”
Fagan said she even challenged existing Block Parents to convince one neighbour each to sign up last spring and summer, with cash prizes as incentive, but not one person signed up. While people supported the initiative on social media, she said it didn’t translate into the real world.
“On social media people vent their anger, but all it does is releases a valve so they don’t actually do anything,” she said. “You express your opinion and then you say I feel better now when in reality nothing has happened. There is no action taken. I call it the Facebook affect.”
Co-chair and treasurer Natasha Meikle said she’s disappointed no one stepped forward to take over the program.
“It’s terrible,” she said. “I think our community needs it. I wish that more people would step up to take over like stay-at-home parents or people who work part time.
“It’s not that big of a time commitment.”
Meikle said they reached out to people on Facebook, but got no interest.
“We figured it was a good way to reach a lot more people than the town events,” she said. “We got zero response on Facebook. Absolutely nobody. I think people think they are busier than maybe they are or they don’t want to give up some time to volunteer for community events like that.”
There is still time for someone to step up, said Meikle, and they can contact the organization on Facebook at Diamond Valley Block Parent.
“If they really want to do it we still have all the paperwork,” she said. “We could easily transfer it over.”
In the meantime, Meikle and Fagan are asking those who have signs to print their name on the back and return them to C. Ian McLaren School in Black Diamond or Turner Valley School or the Sheep River Library in Turner Valley.
