MOUNT FOREST – On Sept. 16, local MPP Matthew Rae met with the team at New Growth Family Centre (NGFC) Inc. to recognize a $68,700 Resilient Communities Fund grant awarded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF).
“The New Growth Family Centre does amazing work to help children live life to their fullest potential,” said Rae.
“I look forward to seeing the positive effects this funding will have not only on local families but across our community.”
The grant is being used to recover from the impact of COVID-19 by improving communication through the purchase of equipment to upgrade technical capacity. The grant also provides for hiring support staff to assist and supervise the complex needs of adolescent and youth clients who attend their therapeutic programs which includes short-term overnight respite accommodation.
“Conditions in children are expressed through behavior and we at the NGFC Inc. believe that early recognition and appropriate response within the family is very effective in preventing behavior escalation in the adolescent and teen years thus preventing family breakdown,” said Aletha McArthur, NGFC founder and program director.
“This OTF grant re-energizes our charity work to benefit more families by allowing immediate and ongoing access to individual coaching from within their own home when they need it by overcoming the two most common barriers: rural location and weather conditions.”
McArthur added, “The third barrier to overcome is low family income to pay for prevention services which this grant does not cover. NGFC Inc.’s charity relies on private and corporate donations to offer direct services for individual families in need.”
Since 2004, NGFC has been successful in paying attention to early challenging behaviors in the 10 to 14 age group and improving the quality of life for a whole family, officials say.
They add that not doing so results in extensive and very expensive crisis response in the event of a mental health breakdown in an adolescent, youth or a parent/caregiver.
The OTF, an agency of the Government of Ontario, and one of Canada’s leading granting foundations is celebrating 40 years of grant-making in Ontario.
Last year, OTF invested over $110 million into 1,022 community projects.
Visit otf.ca to learn more.
