Everything starts with an idea…

A total of 14 people representing various groups and community members were in attendance and included representatives of CHSSN, CIUSSS SLSJ, MFRC, senior community representatives, retired teachers, Centre d’amitie autochotone du Saguenay, parents from the Riverside Regional Elementary School and staff from Riverside Regional High School.

After this initial round table meeting, CHSSN hired, Debbie Ford-Caron as a consultant to oversee the creation and start-up of a local community organization to develop partnerships with the various regional health organizations and educational institutions to serve the English-speaking community in their mother tongue. An initial budget of $25,000.00 was provided for this first phase of the project.

This led to the creation of a non-profit organization named ECO-02 in September 2018. The group known as the Founding Members, consisted of : Jamie Kirlin, Eleanor Perry Morissette, Karen Knight, Annemarie Cronkwright, Melissa Perry, and Debbie Ford-Caron. Their responsibilities were to oversee the various steps required to get ECO-02 up and running. All the necessary legal requirements to become incorporated, choosing a name for the organization, logo, banking, finding an office and hiring personnel were completed within a year.

On May 3, 2019, ECO-02 became incorporated and rented a small office in Carré Davis , Arvida. This incorporation opened the doors to apply for larger NPI core funding through which ECO-02 received an amount of $74,000 from Health Canada through CHSSN for the first year of operation. This provided the necessary funding to create and develop partnerships and programming for the targeted English-speaking community.

ECO-02 created a Strategic Plan which defined its mission, its vision, its goals, as well as its challenges and the strategic orientations that were used to grow as a not-for-profit organization to span the first three-years.

To oversee the governance ECO-02, pending its first AGM, an interim Board of Directors was put in place. It was composed of Debbie Ford-Caron- President, Melissa Perry-Secretary, Eleanor Perry Morissette- Vice-President, Martin Caron-Director, Annemarie Cronkwright- Director, Charlene MacPherson-Director and Karen Knight- Director.

On September 30, 2019, the first Annual General Meeting was held and the following Board members were voted in by the assembly of active members: Debbie Ford-Caron (President), Eleanor Perry Morissette (Vice-President), Martin Caron (Treasurer), Charlene MacPherson (Secretary), Karen Knight (Director) Annemarie Cronkwright (Director), and Krystyna Pourrajabian (Director).