CENTRE WELLINGTON – As federal community support programs wind down, the Centre Wellington Community Foundation (CWCF) sees a continued need for grants to help during the pandemic.
The program has granted more than $100,000 to 30 projects during the course of the pandemic through the Emergency Community Support Fund (ECSF), funded by the federal government, and their grassroots CW COVID-19 Community Response Fund.
They were able to support programs in Centre Wellington, Wellington North, Minto and Mapleton, which is a larger area than they’ve been able to cover in the past.
Executive director Raymond Soucy explained the organization had been in discussion with these communities for years and were able to ask those administering federal dollars to allocate some for community foundations.
“Instead of having someone in Minto having to apply to a national fund, they were able to apply through us,” Soucy said in a phone interview. “The people who are reviewing the grants, they’re local people. We know who they are.”
Looking back on the months since they first launched the community response fund in April, Soucy said he is happy with how quickly the foundation was able to turn around grants for local organizations.
He credits this to the work they did on the Vital Signs Report last year which saw them talking with nearly 700 people in the community.
“We thought that was going to be our biggest project for a long time,” Soucy said. “It turns out this was even bigger.”
The work on Vital Signs meant they were already aware of where the needs would be and who can provide them.
In the early days of the pandemic, Soucy said the need was largely in food security, transportation and technology. CWCF provided many organizations with a licence for a zoom-like program so they could continue to meet.
Now, Soucy said they’re seeing a shift in the need.
“Now we’re seeing a lot of mental wellbeing and as you’re seeing, people are getting exhausted,” Soucy explained. “People are going back to school, work or the office and the stress of all that.”
The next steps for the foundation are to reach out again to the community to make sure they’re thinking isn’t becoming dated.
“The demand is still very much there, a lot of grant programs are done,” Soucy said in a phone interview. “We see a big demand coming this fall and into the winter.”
Learn more about their grant programs here.
