Money has been found from a variety of sources to avoid the layoff of community development workers in Guelph, who were scheduled to lose their jobs this week.

“It looks like we have enough money to keep the program working until the fall,” said Erin Harvey, supervisor of community development for Family & Children’s Services of Guelph and Wellington.

“The upshot is that people very much value the program . . . and there is a commitment to figure out ways to keep it,” she said in an interview.

At a meeting late last week, it was announced that three local organizations have promised funds to keep the program alive for the time being, Harvey said.

Trellis Mental Health and Development Services is giving $47,000, while the Upper Grand District School Board is giving $20,000 and the Guelph Community Health Centre is giving $10,000.

The province’s Ministry of Children and Youth, which had cut off provincial funding for Guelph’s community development workers, also provided “some money just for a short period, so we can keep on talking,” Harvey said. The province had been funding four community development workers, who served five neighbourhood groups in Guelph, through the local Family & Children’s Services. They worked on the agency’s prevention and early intervention program.

Family & Children’s Services had found money to keep community workers on the job an extra six months, but they had been facing layoffs as of Tuesday.

One of the four workers, who left for another job elsewhere during all the uncertainty, probably won’t be replaced for the time being, until the future of these jobs is clearer, Harvey said. This worker served the Parkwood Gardens neighbourhood group. “We will probably not replace that person right away . . . we are figuring out how to redistribute that work,” Harvey said.

Supporters of the community development workers in Guelph are hoping an operational review being done at city hall will find a permanent solution, Harvey said. She said city hall, which is a major funder of neighbourhood groups, expanded the scope of its operational review to include the community development program.

Community development workers assist neighbourhood groups.

The city hall review is to be completed before the new funding for the workers runs out, Harvey said.

At its last meeting, the Upper Grand school board decided to write to Premier Dalton McGuinty to stress the importance of community development workers. They “support families in neighbourhoods and the achievement of children in our schools,” a board news release said.