Community & social supports

The following are examples of impact of your donations from funded organizations and their programs.

• Crow Shield Lodge – During this funding term, they started a ‘Community Day’ which is an open time at the lodge and is an invitation to sit in circle together. This invitation went to all agencies (such as Porchlight Counselling Services and House of Friendship) that do outreach/addiction/homelessness support. It is a morning when outreach workers can come out and bring clientele (Indigenous or non-Indigenous) to a safe place on the land to be together. Some mornings have just been the outreach workers which has also been extremely beneficial for their mental health. We will continue this community day as it’s been a very moving, supportive and healing opportunity for both workers and clientele.
• Kinbridge Neighbourhood Association – 64 Youth are registered with the Youth Newcomer Program and 32 of these youth obtained summer employment.
• Bridges to Belonging – During the last 6 months of funding, Bridges to Belonging is supported 200 individuals through their programming, creating a community where people of all abilities belong and are connected through meaningful relationships.
• Community Justice Initiatives – 75 racialized and Indigenous youth participated in the new Roots 2 Rise program, a partnership between Community Justice Initiatives, Healing of the 7 Generations and their partner the African Community Wellness Initiative.

• “We appreciate the support of our entire organization. This funding provides us with the flexibility to fund the important administrative costs and also to provide the support where it’s needed to most in our programs that are harder to fund.” – Community Justice Initiatives
• “Without the United Way, we would not have the means to improve the lives of our participants or engage our volunteers. By giving the CNIB the ability to facilitate matches for the Vision Mate program, the United Way helps us create new communities and expand the scope of both our participants and volunteers lives, both their present and future.” – CNIB Foundation

Diane is a 34-year-old woman that applied to the Be-friends program at Bridges to Belonging with the hope that they would find her someone to connect with. Diane can be very shy, making it difficult for her to engage with people on her own. Covid restrictions made it difficult for Diane to pursue potential social new opportunities. Over these past 3 years, Dianne has spent most of her time in her home and became increasingly more isolated, lonely and sad. Diane was matched with a woman named Sherry who applied to be a volunteer community friend. After being matched, Diane and Sherry hit it off and Sherry was very excited to introduce Diane to her daughters and bring Diane to meet her wider circle of friends. Diane wanted to return the favour and invited Sherry to join her on BE- connected to meet the friends she has been connecting with virtually. The reciprocity of a genuine friendship is already beginning between Diane and Sherry with both women sharing their gifts, strengths and social connections to bond with one another, and to bring their respective worlds together.