At the regular District of Houston council meeting on Jan. 17, it was reported that the Houston’s Action Changes Things (ACT)committee has decided to merge as a sub-committees of Houston’s Community Health, Education, and Social Services(CHESS) committee.
“Northern Health is the big partner in the ACT committee, their structure is going to be changing, and the ACT committee has chosen to overlap with the CHESS committee. So we’ve been investigating options of how to integrate the ACT committee and the CHESS committee, while still maintaining the funding pool that can dole out grants and other funds they have access too,”reported councillor Jonathan Van Barneveld.
Van Barneveld reported that the solution found is to modify the terms of reference of the CHESS committee so that it would allow CHESS to form sub-committees, and carry out the duties of ACT.
Houston ACT was founded in 2013 as a volunteer group with the purpose to promote healthier, and active lifestyle to the community members of Houston.
“The ACT committee used to put on the Winterfest and other involved projects, will that still continue? Are there enough members on the CHESS committee to operate the ACT committee as it has done in the past?” asked councillor Rick Lundrigan.
“The way it was going, [they had a certain about of money] and if they were to continue forward, eventually to hold events like Winterfest, they would end up coming to council to ask for money and partnering with some businesses to raise funds,because we knew from the start that that money was going to run out eventually from Northern Health,” replied mayor Shane Brienen.
“The original intent [of the ACT committee] was that they were going to dole out the money to groups, but it evolved intothem doing the work themselves. And so I think this was the opportunity for them to go back to its roots. So this sub-committee will be able dole out the funds to any group that’s really wanting to take on something like [Winterfest],”commented Van Barneveld.
Houston council agreed in favour of the recommendation to amend the terms of reference for the Houston’s CommunityHealth, Education, and Social Services committee to form sub-committees and carry out the duties of Houston’s ActionChanges Things.