Thursday April 16, 2020
$200,000 granted to front-line agencies providing food and shelter during COVID-19 pandemic
Yesterday the Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough and United Way Peterborough and District brought together ten front-line agencies providing food and shelter to our community’s most vulnerable residents to discuss how initial donations to the COVID-19 Community Response Fund could be used to address urgent needs.
With $200,000 donated by individuals and organizations, each agency described how they are responding to COVID-19 and where additional resources are needed. With supports to help “flatten the curve” as the primary objective, the needs are many. Safe shelter for homeless youth and adults; emergency food for those same people in addition to low-income seniors and families; PPE for front-line service workers and the list goes on…
“In a roundtable, the group discussed their initial needs,” said Jennifer DeBues, Director of Administration and Granting at the Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough. “After that, they agreed upon how the available funds could be allocated to bolster efforts. It was a very participatory process with lots of information-sharing from the front lines of the pandemic.”
“Getting more people out of shelter, into safer housing, social distancing, et cetera. is good for all of the community,” said Charles Shamess, Executive Director of PARN – Your Community AIDS Resource Network.
“Thank-you to the Community Foundation and United Way for taking the lead on this,” said Christian Harvey, Executive Director of One City Peterborough. “This has been a great process. If you could pass on our thanks to those that donated it would mean so much.”
The ten agencies receiving funding are Brock Mission, Community Care Peterborough, Community Counselling and Resource Centre (CCRC), Food for Kids (Peterborough Public Health), Kawartha Food Share, One City Peterborough, One Roof Community Centre, PARN – Your Community AIDS Resource Network, Nourish Project (YWCA) and YES Shelter for Youth and Families.
“The world and our community are faced with a challenge that is simply unparalleled, and our response will define us for a generation,” said Jim Russell, CEO of United Way Peterborough and District. “That response is, and will continue to draw on all that we have as humanity; our creativity, our intelligence, our faith, our entrepreneurship, our love of one another and of our community. The partnership between the United Way and Community Foundation builds on that raw human desire to thrive. We started with a focus on the most vulnerable among us and will seek to respond further as need emerges.”
The United Way and Community Foundation are grateful to partner with donors and help in these uncertain times. In addition to shelter and housing, mental health is emerging as a serious issue in the aftermath of COVID-19. For those living with mental health issues, the strain is already a problem. For many more of us, mental health issues are arising due to the stress of social isolation, financial insecurity and other uncertainties. The next round of COVID-19 Community Response Fund grants will support local charities helping us cope with the mental health challenges facing us today.
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For more information, please contact:
Jennifer DeBues
Director, Operations and Granting
Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough
Jim Russell
Chief Executive Officer
United Way Peterborough & District
Friday April 10, 2020
COVID-19 Community Response Fund
Generous Donors Make Grants Possible
With the declaration of a COVID-19 pandemic, there is much uncertainty. Some local residents will be feeling the impacts much harder than others.
In this first phase of funding, we are prioritizing charities that are serving people who do not have safe and secure food, shelter and other physical necessities and are therefore at a higher risk for getting sick.
The COVID-19 Community Response Fund was kick started by generous donors who made $100,000 available. Additional donations by individuals and organizations include a $10,000 gift from LLF Lawyers and a $62,500 gift from Peterborough Utilities Group. “In these extraordinary times, community is everything and never more so than when we have the opportunity to help our most vulnerable,” says Bill Lockington, Partner at LLF Lawyers. “Donations to the Response Fund will provide immediate relief and support to the most imperative needs we face.”
The impact of your gift, no matter the size, will be pooled to support charities that are serving people who do not have safe and secure food, shelter and other physical necessities and are therefore at a higher risk for getting sick.
The Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough and United Way Peterborough & District are working in direct consultation with ten charities who will bring their knowledge and experience to the process. 100% of donations will go to support local charities addressing needs arising from the pandemic.
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Thursday April 9, 2020
Peterborough Utilities Group donates to COVID-19 Community Response Fund
Today the Community Foundation was grateful to receive a $62,500 donation towards the COVID-19 Community Response Fund from Peterborough Utilities Group (PUG) employees and PUG Board of Directors in conjunction with the City of Peterborough Holding Inc. (CoPHI), the parent company of PUG. It’s amazing how we are all pulling together during these uncertain times! Click here to read the complete PUG news release.
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Thursday April 2, 2020
COVID-19 Community Resources for Vulnerable Residents and Organizations
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Community Foundation staff and volunteers are hearing about the urgent needs of our region’s most vulnerable residents and organizations. As we find useful sources of information, we’re sharing them here.
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Thursday March 26, 2020
Launch of COVID-19 Community Response Fund
Supporting Our Most Vulnerable Residents
With the declaration of a COVID-19 pandemic, there is much uncertainty. Some local residents will be feeling the impacts (health and economic) much harder than others.
With this in mind, the Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough and United Way Peterborough & District have partnered with local donors to launch a COVID-19 Community Response Fund.
“This Response Fund is about our community coming together in new ways to respond to an urgent community crisis,” said Jennifer DeBues, Director, Operations and Granting, Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough. “We want to support the essential work of charities in our community.”
An initial donation of $100,000 has been made to kick-start the Fund during this urgent phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. One hundred percent of funds raised will be distributed in direct consultation with front line agencies in our community who know best where urgent community needs exist.
“The intent is to invest in efforts to flatten the curve and reduce the rate of COVID-19 transmission,” said Jim Russell, CEO, United Way Peterborough & District. “To that end, our first grants will focus on vulnerable populations, shelter and food. Our early thinking is that we don’t know the full impact of a prolonged event, but we do know homeless people are most vulnerable and food programs are facing immediate challenges.”
COVID-19 Community Response Fund Frequently Asked Questions.
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For more information, please contact:
Jennifer DeBues
Director, Operations and Granting
Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough
Jim Russell
Chief Executive Officer
United Way Peterborough & District
Friday March 20, 2020 (all hyperlinks updated March 27)
To our community,
With the declaration of a COVID-19 pandemic, we know there is a lot of uncertainty.
We acknowledge that some residents will be feeling the impacts (health and economic) much harder than others.
Charities in our community will be facing extraordinary difficulties in the coming months. Some of them are already challenged by the logistics and costs of sourcing personal protective clothing and cleaning supplies, others have had to cancel fundraising events or performances that provide essential operating dollars. Others are trying to figure out how to deliver services to vulnerable clients virtually or remotely.
As always, the Community Foundation is committed to building a vital community for everyone. Over the coming days and weeks, we will work hard to determine if there is additional support we can provide the community. Our vision is to make it easy for people to do more good.
We want to take this opportunity to share with you how we’re responding to the current situation:
- Starting Monday March 16 and for the foreseeable future, our physical office will be closed and staff will work remotely.
- Staff will remain accessible by phone or email. Please don’t hesitate to reach out.
- Donations and grants will continue to be processed.
In addition, here’s a list of temporary changes we are making in our processes to assist our charitable partners:
- We will not be asking any organization that received grants to return the funds due to impacts on your organization resulting from COVID-19.
- You will be given additional time to complete your reports for any grant you received so that you don’t have to deal with that right now. Please complete them whenever it is reasonable to do so.
- If the project/initiative you received funding for cannot be completed within the time period originally outlined – that’s okay. Let us know when your revised plans become clear.
In addition, we are working hard to determine if there is additional support we can provide the community. We are trying to understand how local charities are handling this situation, how it is affecting your work and your financial bottom line. Please keep in touch so we understand your needs. If you have important messages you need amplified on social media, please let us know and we are happy to share them.
We also want to reassure everyone that we have a long-term investment objective of creating a conservatively managed portfolio with predominantly low risk characteristics, in order to preserve capital and deliver reasonable growth and income for community grant potential.
While we encourage everyone to practice physical distancing, we also want to encourage you to stay connected. Physical distancing and “self-isolation” don’t mean social isolation! Take a moment to send a message, make a phone call, or FaceTime a friend, loved one, or neighbour. Staying connected keeps our community resilient and vital.
Some of the best sources of basic information about COVID-19 are Peterborough Public Health, Government of Canada, and World Health Organization.
Also, visit the COVID-19 page published by the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce. It is constantly being updated and contains the lastest Federal, Provincial, etc. information for local residents, charities, businesses…our whole community.
For an evolving list of charitable sector information and resources related to the COVID-19 pandemic, visit the Imagine Canada website.
We will continue to monitor the situation and respond accordingly and will update this news post and our social media accounts as the situation unfolds.
Be kind to yourself and to each other. We’re all in this together.
#vitalptbo