United Way Guelph Wellington Dufferin’s financial assist to one local basketball program has resulted in a slam dunk.
The Guelph chapter recently wrapped up its latest round of funding where over $1.5 million was distributed to more than 50 programs, according to the organization’s announcement in April.
Colleen Murdoch, director of community engagement and impact for United Way, said the basketball program Ball 4 All will receive over $17,000 of that funding.
Ball 4 All is a program that helps youth in the community reach their full potential through teaching the fundamentals in basketball.
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She said the money will go to help expand the local program.
“This will help create more opportunities for that program, for more mentors to be involved, to add some capacity building internally,” Murdoch said.
By partnering with local organizations, she said United Way is able to have an impact on the community.
Ball 4 All has been around “for quite some time” and Murdoch said founder and coordinator, Steven Cuevas, has been interested in expanding the program and delivering it for more children and youth.
United Way’s 2023 fundraising campaign generated just under $2.5 million in donations, a year acknowledged by Glenna Banda, the organization’s executive director, as a difficult one due to the pandemic.
Although this past year has seen United Way Guelph’s donations go down, the use in its services has gone up.
Murdoch said she still looks at this as a successful round of funding.
“It’s $1.5 million that wasn’t there before and without these programs and services that we are able to support, we know our community would look a lot different,” she said.
She said the program will receive the funds over a two-year period.
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