Government should not cut their funding of charities as they attempt to balance the budget, according to Bermuda Sloop Foundation CEO Denise Riviere.

Ms Riviere insists Government’s investments in charities pays off in the long run by offering valuable social services.

“Since the start of our programme in 2006, we have served over 3,500 of Bermuda’s youth but the only way charities like ours will be able to continue to selflessly serve the community and to help heal the social cancers that are taking hold of our youth is if the stakeholders continue to wholeheartedly embrace the adage, ‘It takes a village to raise a child’,” Ms Riviere said.

“Government is a major stakeholder in ‘our village’, so I am holding onto the hope that, in its quest to implement the draconian budget cuts recommended by the Sage Commission (which the members of the Foundation fully understand and support), it recognises the social havoc the cuts will inevitably create, and be both compassionate as well as strategic in the manner by which it levers Bermuda’s proven charities to assist the less fortunate.

“It is the combined effort of the village that allows Government to secure social services and resources at 25 cents to 50 cents to the dollar, where they would otherwise have to absorb full cost. So, in actuality, Government’s investment in charitable services will save tax payers’ money in the long run.”

Ms Riviere said the Government has fully supported the Foundation from its inception, noting the significant seed capital invested to finance the construction of the Spirit of Bermuda, and had been the Foundation’s main client with thousands of public school students taking part in the programme.

The programme is currently offered to all public school M3 students as part of their curriculum in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, but in 2009, the Government’s annual grant to the Foundation was significantly reduced.

As a result, even more pressure was placed on the organisation to find private and individual donors to maintain programmes in difficult economic conditions.

“Many of our more significant donors have made it abundantly clear that, going forward, as our key stakeholder, they expect Government to increase its financial support if they are to continue to fund our Foundation,” she said.

“As one of the largest charities on the Island with a $1.5 million budget, and a programme that is offered at no cost to our public M3 students, there is no way we can achieve true sustainability without a greater investment from Government.”

She said the Foundation had cut its annual operating expenses by more than 20 percent and is still working to improve itself going forward.

“As a result of the difficult state of our economy over the past several years, our Foundation has been motivated more than ever to sharpen its focus, improve its efficiencies and strengthen its partnerships so that we meet the needs of our precious society, while at the same time, survive the times, but we can’t do it on our own,” she said.

“As Government continues its budget setting, I want it to remember that charities are a major part of the village that is needed to raise our children.”