The Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul have made a large financial donation to the Community Foundation for Kingston and Area aimed at helping local children and seniors.
Rob Wood, board chair for the foundation, called the $5-million gift “transformative.”
Wood said the funds will first help community work already underway aimed at preventing or mitigating the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), what Public Health Ontario defines as emotional, physical or sexual abuse experienced in the first 18 years of life.
The money will also be divvied up between agencies and programs that help build resiliency in children and families in the community.
While the second initiative is still in its early stages, it will focus on reducing seniors’ isolation and loneliness, something heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Community Foundation for Kingston and the Area works at connecting donors with community groups and charities that focus on local needs. Wood says the foundation acts as stewards of the money, and that it works closely with local groups to put concrete plans into action.
Wood said often the groups the foundations work with agree on the issues that need to be addressed, but their budgets are too stretched to put quick action in place.
He says the money from the Sisters of Providence will accelerate the plans of local agencies when it comes to helping children and seniors in need.
The foundation will announce more detailed plans for the funds in the fall, but Wood said the money will be used over the next five to 10 years to bring interested parties together to make real change in the community.
— more to come.
- Life in the forest: How Stanley Park’s longest resident survived a changing landscape
- ‘Love at first sight’: Snow leopard at Toronto Zoo pregnant for 1st time
- Carbon rebate labelling in bank deposits fuelling confusion, minister says
- Buzz kill? Gen Z less interested in coffee than older Canadians, survey shows
Comments