In the ongoing scandal involving the Neighbours in Need Facebook Group, former admins who had nothing to do with collecting and distributing donation money feel their names are being dragged through the mud for no reason.
Ashley Gosse was an administrator with the group and joined NIN in 2020. Gosse said she was residing in Iris Kirby House with her children. She had just left a domestic violence relationship, and one of the workers suggested that she reach out to Neighbours and Need.
“I was told that Courtney Barber was an amazing Newfoundlander who now lives abroad and spends her days helping those she can.”
Barber, the creator of the NIN Facebook group, operates it from her home in Fort MacMurray, Alberta.
Gosse said that in the beginning, all ten or more admins trusted Barber to run things, and they all had specific roles in the group. Over the five years, the group has been active, a revolving door of admins has also come and gone.
“I was one of the admins who could approve or deny posts 98% of the time. When posts were declined, it was due to them not having their general location. So I would decline their post, send them a quick message and tell them to add their general location as we are province-wide. Nobody had access to that email or the bank that monetary donations entered. The only person with that information was Barber, who did not share it with us.”
Gosse added that she did not know how much money was coming in or what it was spent on, but Barber was in charge of grocery orders. She had admin volunteers pick them up and deliver them to families.
Peggy Terry, who spent three years as admin of NIN, said she has been dealing with major anxiety since the scandal unfolded and had received non-stop harassment on her Facebook to the point where she had to shut it down. Her child tax was also paused, and she had death threats from donors saying they were going to kick her door down and take their items back.
Terry said she would gladly return all of the physical items, and she has called various charitable organizations to give them away so other families can use them.
She also said most of the posts in the Horror Stories about Neighbours in Need Facebook group are false.
“I have all the physical donations. This was the drop-off spot, and like I said, I don't want it here. I want it out of my house. I don't dip into any of that stuff. It is down in my basement, and it is for the community.”
As reported in the original NIN article by the Rock Report, the security breach by the Single Parents Association broke the scandal wide open.
“A SPAN official questioned Courtney if she had registered NIN at another organization, and she said no. Then she went into the group chat and went right off the head, saying we were lying. I asked her if I could share the email here, and she said yes, go ahead. I put the email in there, and unfortunately, I didn’t think all the other names would be there. It didn’t cross my mind, but I wanted her to admit her guilt. I later sent an apology to SPAN, which they accepted.
Gosse said the most challenging thing for people to accept is thinking all the admins were involved in the scam.
“We asked Cortney if she could provide this information so that we could straighten everything out and people would understand. She refused. Instead, she paused the group and deactivated her Facebook. That's when people started saying that we were all scammers and stealing donations and money,” said Gosse. “To say we all knew what was happening is far from the truth. I don't think it's fair that we get dragged through the mud because of one person. She has turned her back on us, and she's allowing us to be bullied online.”
The personal attacks on her and her family need to stop, said Gosse.
“I have been clean from drugs since October 19, 2019. I have custody of three of my children. I'm a full-time student, and when I graduate next year, I will work as a child youth worker with addiction support. I've spent many days in class crying over this. We wish that people would listen to us and understand that just because we were administrators, we did not know what was going on with the monetary donations.
Terry said her life won’t be the same anytime soon.
“It is horrible to leave your whole team in this situation. Everyone thought she was our friend, and we trusted her. Hundreds of people come to my door monthly to pick up hampers, shoes and Christmas items. We helped so many people in the community, which is disheartening. I thought more of them would speak up, but too many said that the bad outweighs the good.”
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