A Port Moody entrepreneur is looking to build a network of businesses, charities and churches willing to donate their services to people who are suddenly thrust below the poverty line.
The volunteer-run organization was recently launched under the name The Greatest Need Community Network Society and is the brainchild of Russell Cullingworth, a longtime Port Moody resident who, in the past, has worked with the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice and homeless people on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
But while Cullingworth admits those volunteer efforts had real impact, a few years ago, he started reflecting on ways he could make the biggest difference.
“My heart is for the invisible need,” he told The Tri-City News. “Low-income families, they don’t look needy, they look like they’re coping. But they’re not.”
Picture a low-income family that has just enough to pay their monthly bills, he said. Then, the compressor on their fridge conks out or their car breaks down.
Cullingworth points to the case of a young woman, who, as a recovering drug user from Mission, worked a minimum wage job at Tim Hortons. One day, her car was stolen and because she didn’t live along a bus route, she was immediately at risk of losing her job.
It takes just one nudge to push someone like that over the edge, he said.
The solution for many individuals and families, Cullingworth said, is to get a payday loan or rack up debt on a credit card. For someone living on the poverty line, however, that one incident can first financially and then physically spiral their life out of control.
That's where good deeds donated by churches, businesses and charities come in — at least, that’s the plan once Cullingworth has built up the network of donors, from car mechanics and contractors to dentists and financial planners.
“This network is about being face-to-face with the people you’re helping, meeting them, treating them, helping them directly. Using the skills you know best,” said Cullingworth.
The goal, he said, is not to replace government family or mental health services, or to supplant established charities. Instead, Cullingworth wants to add one more layer of protection, a short-term stopgap against spiralling debt.
Before the network can start taking applications from needy people across the Tri-Cities, Cullingworth said he needs to build up the network of providers. So far, it’s just his company, which has footed some of the startup costs, and a contractor that has joined the network to help people with emergency fixes around the home.
Donated services will be capped at no more than $2,000 worth of labour or services over a maximum two-week period.
“We’re not looking to do home renovations or replace someone’s roof,” said Cullingworth.
But even before the network is fully off the ground, the Port Moody man is dreaming big. He wants to see his idea replicated across the Lower Mainland, eventually using an app to match business services to people in urgent need.
“That’s my vision,” he said. “I’m just doing a proof of concept here in the Tri-Cities.”
• Any business, charity or religious organization interested in joining the network is asked to call 604-763-8400, email [email protected] or fill out the form at www.thegreatestneed.org.
