The president and CEO of United Way of British Columbia says the days immediately following the Lapu Lapu tragedy on April 26 were unprecedented.
“In the immediate aftermath, we had staff in contact with the victims’ families to try to assess what their immediate needs were and we were able to respond with support for things like you know rent payments, travel assistance, whether it’s you know, local travel — we assisted some extended family to travel to Vancouver from other parts of the world to be with their families at a … horrific time,” Michael McKnight told Global News in a sit-down interview.
He said that United Way helped pay for some burial expenses and co-ordinated with the Vancouver Police Department’s victim services and social workers.
Four days following the tragedy, in which 11 people were killed and dozens more were injured, United Way BC announced the Kapwa Strong Fund, saying 100 per cent of donations will directly support those affected by the tragic events.
McKnight said that the organization’s role transformed into working with the community to offer trauma support and figure out how to mobilize support for people impacted.
Donations poured into the fund, which raised more than $2 million.
A quarter of it went to the festival organizer, Filipino BC, at the request of donors and the rest, more than $1.5 million, was distributed.
United Way BC ended up handing out 45 grants to organizations that applied, and a report will be compiled after March 31 showing how the organizations used the money and the results.
The committee that decides is made up of eight people — four from United Way BC and four external members.
United Way stated that the four external members were leaders in the Filipino community.
“We worked with the Filipino community and the broader community to hear what they had to say about how people affected, that they directly work with day in, day out, might be best supported in that aftermath,” McKnight said.
“And, you know, everybody heals differently. So we were open to what the community told us, their clients, or the people in their organizations needed, and we worked to provide grants that fulfilled those needs that were identified.”
United Way confirmed that 21 funding applications were not approved.
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Full breakdown of the Lapu Lapu tragedy donations and where the money went
Global News has heard from victims of the Lapu Lapu tragedy that they are not getting the financial support or help they expected.
McKnight said he can’t speak to what everyone’s expectation of where the donated money was going to go.
“I think we communicated in our solicitation to the community the type of work that United Way does,” he said.
“For the last 97 years, United Way has been working with community-based organizations to support social service needs. So it’s consistent with what we’ve done for the last 96 years. And our role in supporting community is about community well-being.”
McKnight said that United Way’s role has always been to support the broader community and that victims are defined in many different ways.
He added that they can’t force members of the public to attend any of these events that are funded by the grant money.
According to its Kapwa Strong Funds Distribution report, one grant of $30,000 was given to the Bandits Community Foundation, based in Langley, to refurbish a basketball court in the Philippine flag colours and to offer free youth camps led by Filipino coaches.
“That grant wasn’t for refurbishing a basketball court,” McKnight said.
“In our conversations with the Filipino community, the community told us that young Filipino or Filipino youth really connect with basketball. And this was a grant to provide basketball camps in combination with available counselling in the moment to support those kinds of youth. That’s what the grant was issued for. And I guess we’ll find out in the final report if it was consistent, the funds were consistent with that proposal, but it wasn’t to refurbish a basketball court, it was to provide basketball camps for Filipino youth.”
AJ Sico suffered a traumatic brain injury and now requires a wheelchair after he was severely injured in the Lapu Lapu Festival tragedy.
His loved ones say they have not received financial support from United Way BC.
“The fact people donate thinking it goes to families, it goes to organizations who have to apply to grants to get the money, who can do whatever they want with it,” Sico’s girlfriend, Vanessa Hill, told Global News previously.
“That’s a huge bait and switch.”
McKnight insists that United Way’s role is to support the broader community.
“What we tried to do, and again, this isn’t an incident that any of us have any experience with, but where we saw the immediate need, we tried to step in and help before these other systems kick in, whether health care, insurance, other kinds of organizations and supports that are outside of United Way’s role and mandate,” he said.
“There are different organizations whose mandates are specific to addressing the needs of victims in tragic circumstances,” McKnight added.
“United Way’s rule, our expertise, our ability, is to support the broader community. It always has been. And that’s where our strength and our capacity and our knowledge is. We were never set up to help individuals during those types of tragic situations.”
When asked to respond to criticism that the grants appear to be a haphazard patchwork of services, McKnight admitted that charities are not always efficient.
“Well, the network of community services isn’t highly coordinated. It’s often impassioned individuals who want to do something,” he said.
Premier David Eby said his office is looking into issues raised by victims.
“Our staff have reached out to the United Way to talk about the distribution of money and to ensure accountability to both who donated and those who were expecting support, who may not have received it,” Eby said.