WELLINGTON COUNTY – United Way Guelph Wellington Dufferin has distributed more than $100,000 to community partners, through the new Community Action Grants funding stream.
Under United Way’s revised Community Impact Strategy, the Community Action Grants provide an opportunity to act on emerging needs, and creates more funding opportunities for community organizations.
“Taking what we learned from administering COVID-19 response funding, and through our Community Impact Strategy review, we realized that there was a need for us to have more flexibility when it came to responding to emerging needs in the community,” said Glenna Banda, executive director of United Way Guelph Wellington Dufferin.
United Way is a unique funder, as they provide organizations with multi-year funding commitments. This is important in providing ongoing stability and capacity building opportunities for organizations.
“We are committed to providing that ongoing core funding, however, the Community Action Grants provided us an opportunity to assist organizations who needed a smaller amount of funding dollars… or were looking for funding to address emerging issues happening right now in our community,” said Banda.
Thirteen Community Action Grants were distributed, including:
– The Seed. Funding to assist with the lease of a refrigerated, dock height truck that will allow for increased access and distribution of food;
– Shelldale Family Gateway. Funding to support The Community Table, which provides needed items for the Onward Willow Community, free of charge;
– Child Witness Centre. Funding to support a facility dog to support the mental health of young victims and witnesses of crime;
– Guelph Public Library. Funding to purchase additional loanable Wi-Fi hotspots; and
– Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy. To support easily accessible harm reduction supplies throughout Wellington County.
Other recipients included:
– Action Read Community Literacy Centre;
– Centre Wellington Food Bank;
– Church of the Apostles – Helper Bees;
– Fanjoy Cooking Up Change;
– Guelph Black Heritage Society;
– Learning Disabilities Association of Wellington County;
– The People and Information Network; and
– Rainbow Programmes for Children.
“The Community Action Grants give us another opportunity to work with community partners to ensure everyone has an opportunity to thrive, ” said Colleen Murdoch, director of community engagement and impact.
Donations to United Way are accepted year-round, by visiting online at unitedwayguelph.com or by calling the United Way office 519-821-0571.
