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Слава Ісусу Христу! Слава На Віки!

Into the 4th year since re-opening our doors after our $8.5M rebuild, St. John’s Institute continues to flourish as a model of youth leadership development, a vibrant Ukrainian cultural hub, and a catalyst for a dynamic, innovative, engaged community, in the spirit of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. Our two main sources of revenue generation at the Institute – affordable housing, and facility rentals/catering, continue to thrive, although the opposing challenges of maintaining the facility, paying down the mortgage, generating funds for operating and capital reserves, and only charging the permitted maximum of 90% of rates allowed in commercial rental markets, while still attempting to meet all requests for support from our community for housing guests and catering events at significantly discounted rates - have certainly not been easy to overcome.

With no month featuring fewer than 10-15 events (both SJI’s and others’), several signature activities carried the torch for St. John’s Institute’s cultural programming in 2015. In January, the Institute presented “Koliaduiemo razom: Pikkardiys’ka Tertsia in Concert” at Edmonton’s Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium. An audience of

over 1900, including nearly 300 children from Ukrainian bilingual schools, youth groups and cultural programs across Edmonton and beyond, heard the renowned Ukrainian a cappella ensemble, live at the Jube. The performance was followed by a reception for the entire house, catered by St. John’s Institute.

Pentecost in the Park was celebrated by a large group of faithful on May 31 under a picturesque afternoon sky with a shared picnic after a beautiful service.

And most recently, on July 6, over 300 people turned out to celebrate “Kupala in the Park.” There, they were treated to a performance

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by Ukraine’s Rozhanytzia - a female vocal collective from Kyiv who took the crowd through the many magical rituals of this summer solstice tradition.

A barbecue of shashlyky, freshly-baked bread, and plentiful salads was enjoyed by adults and children alike. Motanky, vinkopletennia, songs, dances, games, a scavenger hunt and a vatra rounded out the evening in Emily Murphy Park.

On Saturday, July 11, SJI cooked up a traditional pancake breakfast for 650 Edmontonians on behalf of Premier Rachel Notley and the NDP Caucus MLAs, who served the breakfast at Wilbert McIntyre Park. Later that same evening, the Institute co-presented a live 3-hr show, “After Art in the Park” as part of the Whyte Avenue ArtWalk Festival, a 14-block festival of visual art, of which the Institute served as presenter and producer this year.

With the aim of creating opportunities to put Ukrainian artists in front of the public, SJI was pleased to have Rozhanytsia on stage once again. Festival attendees were also treated to a sampling of SJI’s famous pyrohy supper in the park.

And at the time of writing this report, SJI is about to make history! From July 16 – 25, SJI will be the first-

ever non-profit, registered charity, Ukrainian food vendor to ever take part in Edmonton’s major food festival, Taste of Edmonton! Our restaurant, “A Taste for Life - Ukrainian Кafé & Бistro” will be staffed with volunteers over this 10-day period. This will all have been good practice for July 26, when, as food sponsor for Ronald McDonald House Charities, we will have served up some scrumptious meals to at least 5000 people at the RMHC-Northern Alberta Block Party!

Though all of this activity is exciting and exhilarating, it has tested the mettle of both our staff and our bank

account. And while we would like to support each and every initiative that our community brings to us, we are in the position of having to decline opportunities when an organization cannot contribute enough to cover the costs of properly servicing the event, and allowing us to pay our own bills. For the first time in 4 years, SJI will be in a deficit position, this being partly the result of a significant capital expense to make our new building compliant with noise bylaws, partly from some significant repairs made to Camp Bar-V-Nok in 2014, and partly from have taken on some projects that did not yield adequate returns. It will take at least another full year for us to recover from this deficit. In light of this reality, we are reducing our staff and taking a “back-to-basics” approach to our operation: making fundraising and grant-seeking a priority; limiting the number of projects we take on, and ensuring that we have a stable source of funding for both capital and operating reserves, should we ever require the use of them.

At the core, however, we are proceeding with the hope and expectation that supporting the good works of

our client organizations will result in their support – tacit and tangible – of our efforts. This approach has made us

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seek new ways of working with our non-profit and charity clients so that everyone’s needs can be met. We have created a process to help our clients determine the types of “currencies” at their disposal - that can be used to pay for our services. In many cases, mining these other organizations’ connections and resources has opened new doors for SJI and given us additional avenues through which we can pursue sources of revenue, promotion, and community building. We have opened our doors to many new groups of people who NEED our help, and in turn, have found many new groups of people who can OFFER their help.

St. John’s Institute was already in fundraising mode this year, hosting a casino on February 2 and 3, followed

shortly thereafter by its own fundraising gala on February 7. “Show Me the Money” hosted by MLA David Dorward, featured a banquet and performances by artists who had been the beneficiaries of SJI’s support. Alberta’s Minister of Human Services, Heather Klimchuk, presented the keynote address. Minister Klimchuk praised the Institute for “feeding the whole person” by not only providing affordable housing, but incorporating access to

food, art, and culture, to people who could likely not otherwise afford it. The same message was reiterated in an invitation to SJI to sit on the Mayor’s Task Force for the Elimination of Poverty, and in a subsequent request from Edmonton’s Capital Region Housing Corporation to investigate duplicating SJI’s model in some of the city’s new affordable housing developments.

The Institute showed its support of other non-profits and charities, and

its encouragement of youth leadership development, with monetary contributions collected through fundraisers held and/or matched by our own SJI Residents Association. In particular, the Ukrainian Canadian Students’ Union, the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Calmar Zirka Ukrainian Dancers, the Kinette Club of Edmonton, and the ZMIIV Orphanage in Kharkiv, Ukraine, received donations in support of their goals. Many, many more

organizations received contributions in the form of discounts and subsidies to use SJI’s meeting facilities; accommodations for their guest speakers and performers; catering for their special events, and promotion of their activities through our membership and promotional channels. We were also pleased to host and sponsor Ukrainian art competitions and exhibits, panel discussions, book launches, round tables and Ukrainian student/mentor networking events. Through these events, many newcomers to Canada from Ukraine had the chance to meet each other, meet other generations of Ukrainian Canadians, meet Ukrainian Canadian artists, musicians, scholars, and those in positions of leadership in our community. They also got to discover why so many consider SJI their second home.

During July and August 2014, at the direction of Camp Directors, Fr. Dcn. Anton Lakusta and Ronald

Bayda, and under the chaplaincy of Rev. Fr. Cornell Zubritsky, 89 youngsters aged 7-14 had their fill of summer thrills at Camp Bar-V-Nok: “Where Faith, Culture and Nature Come Together.” The camp program was very uplifting and successful, with nearly 25% of children pre-registering for the 2015 season. We truly appreciate the outstanding job of our camp directors, counsellors, parent volunteers, families, sponsors, and donors, in making 2014 an incredible summer experience. And SJI remains committed to the stewardship of this 2-week Ukrainian Orthodox camp program and will ensure it has a home as long as one is required.

The 2015 camp program has been moved

to Camp St. Basil, however, since an insurance audit determined that approximately $125,000-

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$150,000 of repairs and restoration is necessary before Camp Bar-V-Nok will be safe and insurable again. Since that determination, the SJI Board of Directors made the difficult, but necessary, decision to close the camp until a long term plan for the property could be established. Shortly afterward, a BarVNok Long Term Planning Committee was formed, comprised of Board members and community volunteers, and given a mandate to provide options for the future of the camp property. The two options presented to the Board were to Sell (in-whole or in-part) or Redevelop the property. After weighing the options over much discussion, the Board decided to explore the Sell option. With this being a large and significant decision, the sale of the camp property will be taken to the membership of the Institute at its next AGM and it is expected that there will be substantial community interest as well. Before any final decisions are made, SJI would like to be satisfied that all potential avenues have been explored, and that all reasonable opportunities to derive long-term benefit from the camp property have been realized by our Ukrainian Orthodox community.

On its commitment to its Orthodox roots, SJI has been fully funding the work of a Faith Programming

Coordinator (FPC) who has initiated and implemented projects and celebrations involving the Western Eparchy and the Chapel of St. John’s Chrysostom at the Institute. SJI has been pleased to offer evening chapel services to residents and special holiday observances to the wider community. We look forward to expanding the role of the Faith Programming Coordinator into one that will complement the Institute’s mandate of youth leadership development. Exploring the possibility of Missions work with the Consistory, or a Youth Ministry position that would have benefits for both SJI residents and others would certainly be a good fit for an institution that is becoming an important cornerstone in the lives of many young people, including Ukrainians born in Canada and abroad.

The board and membership of SJI are appreciative of the efforts of the UOCC and the Western Eparchy –

especially those members of the clergy and the faithful who have contributed their on-going support, guidance, volunteer contributions and funds towards our work. St. John’s Institute is honoured to have made a small, but unique, contribution to the development of our Ukrainian Orthodox community.

Respectfully submitted,

Suzanna Brytan

Suzanna Brytan