~ LORNA COPELAND: leaving Terrace after five years: of

transforming the social services landscape.

City prepares for
downstairs tenants

Renovations to the bottom floor of Terrace City Hall are “‘com-
ing along tremendously well’’, says City Administrator Bob
Hallsor, and with structural work complete, painting and carpeting
of the former RCMP headquarters begins this week.

The area. will become the néw home of the Terrace and District

Community Services Society, which has expanded beyond the
capacity of its present quarters at 4530 Lakelse Ave. Hallsor said
the society will occupy the city-owned premises under a one-year
renewable lease arrangement at the rate of $2,440 per month. The

agreement is currently in the form of a letter of intent, he said, with

the lease yet to be signed.

The rent rate is slightly lower than that paid by the RCMP, but
Hallsor noted that the city will have use of part of the lower floor —
the old police cellblocks, which will be used for record storage. It
will make things ‘‘quite a bit tidier’’ upstairs, he said, because it will
double the city’s record-storage area.

Hallsor said the city budgeted $60, 000 for the estimated costs of

renovation.

‘In addition to the TDCSS programs housed in the society’s pre-

, sent building, the new quarters will also be home for the Northwest

Drug. and Alcohol Counselling service, presently operating from an
office in the Ministry of Social Services and Housing building on

Kalum St.

Hallsor says if the renovations stay on schedule the area will be
ready by the last week in July, 2 week ahead of the August a oc-

cupancy date.

Youth Centre gets into
some serious clowning

For teenagers who like to
clown around, the Terrace
Youth Centre has just the thing.
Youth Centre spokesperson Pat
Williams says the center is start-
ing a clowning club on July 18

which will meet every Monday
~ night from 7 to 9 p.m. And once

afew workshopshave beencom- =
-other. ‘‘free’’~ activities taking

pleted, teens could begin to earn
a little money just for being a
clown,

by Tod Strachan

Williams says members of the
club could gain practical ex-
perience by volunteering their
talents to the Children’s
Festival, as well as a variety of
Riverboat Days activities, but
after that the center will be look-
ing for paying jobs. such as

children’s birthday parties.

She says the club will be open
to youth over 12 years of age
and there is no charge for
membership — it’s free. Skills
will be taught by Susie Dow and
Chris Irving, and the club will be
supervised by Judy Chrysler.
There are also a variety of

place at the center, says
Williams, and if anyone is in-
terested in joining the fun or
becoming a volunteer they can
phone the center at 635-2018 or
Pat Williams at 638-0112.

The Centre is open weekdays

from 2 to 4 p.m. and Monday,

Wednesday.and Friday evenings
from 7 to 10 p.m. There is also a

weekly family day on Sundays

from 2 to 4 p.m

’ Skeena Health Unit,

PS oe

Terrace Review — Wednesday Jay, 1988 17 |

~ Community Services leader
leaves legacy of caring

She came, she saw the need,
she created the organization
that’s the envy of B.C. social
services, and now she’s leaving.

Shivers of apprehension are
running through the ranks of
Terrace and District Community
Services these days as the daunt-
ing task of finding a replacement
for Lorna Copeland enters its
second month, It won’t be an

easy job — she’s the architect,
engineer, pilot and navigator for,

an organization that began five
years ago with virtually nothing
and now has about 125 staff
members and a budget in excess
of $2 million. --

Copeland arrived in Terrace

in 1980 when her husband, a-

B.C.. Tel employee, was trans-
ferred here. Her first  profes-
sional target was a public health
education position with the
one of
several areas In which she has

qualifications. That one never

quite came through, but in 1983
she approached the board of the
Community Services Society
with a compelling vision of a
comprehensive group that would
provide community-based pro-
fessional aid to everyone who
needed it — the physically dis-
abled, the mentally ill, victims of
self-inflicted’ chemical abuse,
parents and children in crisis... a
list as open-ended as the agenda
of the new organizaton.

The board bought it, and now
the TDGSS-employs more than
125 people who provide services
of one sort or another to 10 per-
cent of the Terrace area popula-

tion, and some of the programs.

have branched out into other
Northwest Communities.
Success on this scale and dura-
tion is rare in the social services,
with politically expedient
changes in government policy,
special interest groups clamoring
for board positions, and financ-
ing that is often short-term and
elusive. Much of the Terrace
Broup’s success can be attributed
to Copeland’s administrative
skills, leadership, visionary in-

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novation, determination, and
her talent for finding people
who can get things done.

In a recent interview she said
the TDCSS was originally a
loosely-federated set of indepen-
dent programs with good inten-
tions but chaotic organization:
‘“There was no sense of identity,
no one really knew who they
were.’’ Well, every social service
group in B.C. knows who they
are now, and they’ve become so
solidly established that
Copeland says even funding —
much of it through contract
work with various levels of
government — hasn’t been
much of a problem for the past
two years.

A flexible philosophy oriented
to the changing needs in the
community has given the
TDCSS a sort of adaptive

‘growth, Copeland notes that

they don’t compete with other
non-profit societies for funding,
and all. their programs are in a
continuous state of review. ‘“We
evolve services as the need
becomes apparent,’’ she re-
marked. ‘‘I don’t believe in self-
perpetuating programs.’’

The society’s most recent ac-

complishment is the opening of ©

the children’s respite home, a
regional facility in Terrace that

provides periodic breaks for

parents of handicapped children
(and the children themselves).
When asked what the next thrust
should be, Copeland zeroed in
on services to the mentally ill
and mental health services in
general for the Northwest. “It
fits in well with our philosophy,
‘helping people to be responsible
for themselves’... much of the
damage people do to themselves
is self-inflicted, so it should be
prevention-oriented, involving a
public relations campaign for
weliness,’’ she said.

As a finishing touch to her

work here, Copeland recently

completed negotiations for the
TDCSS administrative offices to
be moved into the lower floor of

city hall, an area formerly  oc- -

cupied by the local RCMP
detachment. In her typical
fashion she got a good deal for
the society, with low rent and
the city paying for the required.
renovations.

- The society’s current head- ;

quarters at 4530 Lakelse Ave.
will be taken over by two of its
programs, the Terrace Alternate
Program and New Horizons.
Both are directed at helping
adolescents who have difficulty
coping with the structure and
demands of the public school
system,

-‘Copeland’s moving to Prince
George, and she says she’s made
up her mind to be on her way by”
the end of this month, but adds,
‘“*T"]l continue to support this
society for as long as needed.
When asked what she’ll do in
Prince George, she laughed and
said, ““That’s a secret.”’ She ex-
pressed the intention, however,
to take some time off, noting
that people in her position often
become embittered and cynical
after years of fighting on behalf
of acause. ‘I don’t intend to get
like that, I don’t want to burn
out.” .

She hinted that there may
some private consulting and
government development ad-
visory ‘work in the future for
her.

Perhaps the greatest tribute to
her accomplishments in Terrace

lies in the fact that she worked in
virtual anonymity and invisibili- -
ty, yet the results of that work .

are visible everywhere in the
community... and she has struc-
tured and staffed her creation so
well that it will probably run
perfectly without her extraor-
dinary vision and talents.

‘NISSAN MICRA.

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