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Wednesdsay June 20, 2001 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER A3 S o c ia l s e r v ic e s a s a b u s in e s s m o d e l Yonge St. Mission executive had to find partnerships to offset Provincial cuts to programs By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Premier Mike Harris may be right: business can boost social agencies. It was a tough sell for Rick Tobias to put that to a room full of social workers Friday during the June 14-16 Family Service Ontario 2001 Conference hosted in Oakville by Halton Family Services. Yet Tobias, executive director of Toronto's Yonge Street Mission, is used to tough sells. He helps the homeless and the desti tute on the mean streets of TO -- and he's sold funding of the 105-year-old Christian mission to Bay Street. He now operates with a surplus, he said. "Please hear this. Sometimes our ideals get in the way of the people we serve. Sometimes our ideals are our ideals, and we must keep in mind that our calling is to get the best for the people we serve," Tobias said. The Maritimes native who's been with the Yonge Street Mission for 18 years took heat about whether his efforts are proving that the Harris government was right in its extreme, if not fatal, slashing of funding to social service agencies. Tobias has brought corporate Toronto on board in his quest to fund his mission. Critics of Tobias say he's simply trad ing on personality and personal friend ships with the rich and influential and was asked what happens when he leaves. "You're right," he responded. Tobias said if charisma can be used, then it will be. Mission staff are also training to learn what he knows about doing "business". Tobias was on hand Friday at the Holiday Inn-Oakville Centre to share his "trade secrets" with social workers from Halton and across Ontario. Halton Family Services is nearly 50 years old and helps local families with family, debt, separation and grief coun selling; abused women, assertiveness training and more. "I will not pretend that this is idealism. This is pragmatism," said Tobias. He likened it to the argument that food banks should close because they're undignified. "Be careful of who pays the price of our philosophical argument with the gov ernment," he warned. "We do all need to know how to do Photo by Barrie Erskine Rick Tobias: " our calling is to get the best for the people we serve." business in a new world. In the `60s, the pendulum swung left. Now the pendulum is clearly swinging right and it's not going to change soon, it's a world-wide move ment," said Tobias. When government funding all but dried up for social agencies early during the Tories' rule, Tobias was already lunch ing with the rich and powerful-- and tug ging at their heartstrings in the hope that they'd show compassion. Though his clothes didn't pass white collar muster, his ideas and manner did. And the businesses showed compas sion. The destitute are often hungry and businesses are often hungry to help, he said. Just as often, businesses are beaten up over not helping the poor, said Tobias whose talk was dubbed Both Sides Now -- was about reaching out to both the poor and corporate Canada. Often there are striking resemblances in what Tobias called the "brokenness" of the poor and the hidden unhappiness of the upper classes. It's tough for each to recognize the other's pain, he said. "Several years ago I met a counsellor who graciously accused me of hurting the very people I was hired to serve," began Tobias, who admitted he, too, had been busy beating up businesses. "We have found that the business community is interested in the needs of the poor and broken, but is at a loss as to how to respond beyond giving dollars. We have also found them eager, even hungry to learn and to invest time and skills," said Tobias. At the Yonge Street Mission, business people help with strategic planning, man agement coaching, program evaluation, think tanks and crisis intervention. 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