The YWCA has a new president and it’s someone who’s very familiar with the organization.
Julie Green assumed the role as of April 22 and it’s a return to a group in which she served as the director of community relations between 2009 and 2015. Before that, she worked as a reporter with CBC North.
“I started getting involved with the YWCA as a volunteer about 25 years ago,” said Green. “I held a variety of positions, including as a staff member in the organization, and I had an opportunity to see the good work that the organization does in Yellowknife and other communities in the NWT.”
Green said the organization is still in a period of growth, particularly with the influx of federal funding for housing, saying the YWCA has been a significant part of addressing the housing needs of women, children, and families.
She said that the most recent federal budget shows that there is more funding coming in for social housing and she believes that the organization could make good use of that to meet the demand for affordable housing.
As the previous Minister of Health and Social Services, Green said that she wanted to bring her passion for improving the lives of Northern women and children to the legislative assembly and that part still lives with her.
She added that she’ll bring some unique experiences from working for the department.
“I learned a tremendous amount about how government works, how policy and budgeting are created, and I feel that coming back to the YWCA with that knowledge would be helpful to them,” she said.
One of the challenges Green identified for non-profit organizations such as the YWCA is staff salaries, which is usually not competitive with the GNWT’s pay and benefits.
That could be a problem in terms of how they can retain their staff, she said.
To address these problems, Green said she’s ensuring competitive compensation for staff and researching how others are paid in the market.
Green is also looking at the housing crisis in the North. She noted that the limitations set up by federal government funding, which currently caps housing suite sizes at two bedrooms, pose a problem for larger Northern families. She indicated she would be seeking additional funds to build accommodations with three and four bedrooms to meet the demand.