= Collective

Human Resources, show that
177,138 people are now
receiving welfare in British |
Columbia, of whom 23,804
are kids aged 18 to 24.

Figure a few thousand are
couch potatoes who aren’t

+ Oing to work at gun point,
and that’s still 20,000 kids in
need of a job. So the ques-
tion becomes: whose job is it
to create those jobs?

The good doctor Kunin,
whose own job is to keep
track of such things, reports
that nearly all jobs being cre-
ated these days are in smali
business and scif-employ-
ment. Big, business (downsiz-
ing), big government (cut-

_ backs), and big unions (over-
pricing) are Creating virtually
nothing in the way of
employment.

None of that seems to
faze young North Vancouver
single mom Catherine Lane,
who has discovered the joys
of “the collective borrowing
movenent,” whose adherents
subscribe to the unusual phi-
losophy that “character is col-
lateral.” A Third World con-
cept that has put millions of
the pocrest pcople around

the planet to work, collective
borrowing is a brilliant con-
cept that deserves close atten-
tion. It goes something like
this: you have an idea for a

~ job burt lack access to capital

am youth job key

“The fewer jobs there are,
the more work there is to do.”

= Dr: Roslyn Kunin, The
Laurier Institute

Then I had to help
Granddad around
>

which the kid replies:
you were lucky, Two
jobs!-These days Id settle for
just one.”: :
‘The latest figures, accord-
ig to the folks over at

shes To All Of |

~ You From

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eee!

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(the bank won’t lend you any
money) or a business plan.
You join a four-person team,
all of whom want to work. A
professional counsellor guides
your team until the first busi-
ness plan is complete, where-
upon that member gains
ascess to a small loan. When
that loan is repaid, the sec-
ond member becames eiigi-
ble, and so on down the line,
with loans increasing in size.

The beauty is that each
member keeps a close eye on
the others’ business.

More importantly, per-
haps, cach member is respon-
sible for the others repayment
(currently 98 per cent, better
than any commercial banking
scheme).

How small is roo small to
get started?

“I was in an entrepreneur-
ship program at Cap
College,” says Lane, who
runs Unforgettable Garage
Sale Services out of her
home, “and the problem for
everyone was the same — no
one will lend you any money.
Then our instructor told us
about collective borrowing.
I'm not doing it full-time,

but with the money I niake
planning peaple’s garage sales
I’m working towards my big
goal of opening a country-
style cafe/store soon. One
step at a time.”

haps the real question

if poor people

toes '

a rr aa a4

Wednesday, December 3, 1997 — North Shore News - 15

around the world, lacking
access to any social services at
all, are creating their own
work in the millions, why do
we have over 20,000 kids sit-
ting around out of work in
B.C?

For more information

about collective borrowing,
call CommuniK at 688-7050.

— Michael MeCartly isa
North Vancouver journalist
who writes about positive
community initiatives and
youth,

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