Wednesday, October 29, 2008

One of Calgary’s Most Effective Non-Profit Orgs is Evolving


The Back Door is community supporting youth in their transition from street to mainstream living. 7 out of 10 participants succeed.  2008 marks The Back Door’s 20th year of service to Calgary and long-term street dependent  young people in our city. What’s even more remarkable than two decades of uninterrupted support is that over 70% of participants who commit to the 24 month BackDoor contracting program get off the street. For good. 

To mark this milestone, on Tuesday, October 28th at 11:30 a.m. on the steps of city hall, The Back Door will be presenting to the people of Calgary - through alderman Joe Ceci - a gift of thanks “for believing in young people”. They will also be officially announcing an evolution of their current identity. The BackDoor will now be known as The Doorway.

Marilyn Dyck, co-founder and the Executive Director of the BackDoor, explains the need for the change:  “The street is not just where these important young people live, it is a culture and how they think. As community and young people listen and learn together, they have shown us that a door sometimes gets in the way of the exchanges between people and ideas. “The BackDoor” was the beginning of a process that has grown much larger. A “doorway” offers ease in the transitions from one space to another. Young people who succeed make choices to move from the culture of the street to safer

, healthier and managed life style options. THIS is what we are about. THIS is the transition we facilitate. We saw the need to better reflect these truths and we believe our new identity ‘The Doorway’ strikes a perfect balance between who we are now, the heritage of how we became that, and the vision we have for our continued growth.  We did not want to abandon our name, we wanted to evolve it.”

 The new tagline of The Doorway -- ‘Transitioning to Choice’ -- echoes the organization’s philosophy. Personal transitions do not just happen for young people; they are the experience of the community people who participate with and support us. By understanding the organization’s purpose, volunteers, employees, donors and the board of directors all transition to a commitment and belief in young people and to choices of support that end up making the difference in the futures of these young people. 

No comments: