The pandemic, less funds, and a drastic increase in mental health has caused the United Way Guelph Wellington Dufferin to review where its funding is going and address new needs within the community.
On Wednesday, the organization announced it will be investing $1.3 million into programs and services that build resilience in children and youth to support emotional well-being, increase belonging & inclusion, support mental health and connection to community supports.
This was the first round of funding from the organization, with more to come.
But the United Way points out that the funding requests were three times what they were able to give.
As a result, some local organizations who have received funding from the United Way in the past, may see reduced funding this year, or none at all. Glenna Banda, executive director of the United Way GWD, said there was an in-depth process behind determining which organizations were chosen.
“We brought together all sorts of community stakeholders, and we looked at data and trends within the community and really assessed sort of where some key numbers were changing,” said Banda, “The amount of individuals that have been reaching out for mental health services has drastically increased during the pandemic, and it hasn’t gone back to pre pandemic numbers, it’s sort of a new baseline.”
Some new programs that will be receiving funding include rural programs, like The Grove Youth Wellness Hubs in Wellington County, and the Lived Experience Advisory Network (LEAN) in Dufferin County.
Acknowledging the bad news this will be for some organizations, Banda said the United Way maintained transparency with organizations during the process of selecting applicants, and most were understanding of the situation.
“As difficult as it is to reduce funding to another program, we really have to look at crisis-type of situations that are really important right now and prioritize those,” said Banda, “but we are hopeful for the future that we’ll be able to rebuild back, and to add sort of that additional funding in the future.”
While some organizations may have missed out on funding in phase one, Banda mentions some charities may be selected in the next phase of funding.
A release said applications will open next month to equity and rights seeking groups through a new Equity, Diversity & Inclusion funding stream. As well, the United Way GWD will soon be running the first round of Community Action Grants, as well as some inspiring work to align supports for housing, food insecurity and income security through the Poverty to Possibility focus area. To learn more, click here.
“We’ve been advocating to the government, other vendors to see if there are ways to fill that gap,” Banda said about how the United Way GWD is trying to help find more funding for other groups.
Across Canada, the nonprofit sector is experiencing a variety of issues from decreased revenue to lower volunteer participation, resulting in challenges in delivering services. While the sector may adapt through innovation and partnerships with similar organizations, Banda said community member support remains important for these programs.
“These are things that we need in our community, and if donations and volunteers disappear, these services will no longer exist, and so I think it’s something that the community really needs to understand what the nonprofit sector brings to our community and why it is important to continue to volunteer and to continue to support them,” said Banda.
Those receiving funding in the first round were:
- Action Read Community Literacy Centre
- Alzheimer Society Waterloo Wellington
- Big Brothers Big Sisters Dufferin & District
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of Guelph
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Wellington
- Child Witness Centre
- Community Resource Centre of North and Centre Wellington
- Compass Community Services
- Dufferin Child and Family Services
- Dufferin Parent Support Network
- East Wellington Community Services
- Family & CHildren's Services of Guelph & Wellington
- Guelph Community Health Centre
- Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition
- Guelph Wellington Seniors Association
- Guelph & Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination
- Guelph Wellington Women in Crisis
- Headwaters Communities in Action
- Immigrant Services Guelph Wellington
- John Howard Society of Waterloo-Wellington
- March of Dimes Canada
- Michael House Pregnancy Care Centre
- Shelldale Family Gateway
- The Grove
- Victorian Order of Nurses
- Wellington County Learning Centre
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