Community partnerships support funds for County charities

Six local charities shared an early Christmas present of $ 15,000 from the Prince Edward County Community Foundation as recipients of this year’s Community Fund grants.

“As with last year’s Community Fund grants, money is being given to a variety of County organizations in response to a wide range of community needs,” said Bridget Stevenson, the foundation’s executive director. “This process really highlights the amazing work so many groups are doing in Prince Edward County, as well as the challenges they face in delivering their projects and services. I only wish we were able to support more of them.”

The Community Foundation’s $15,000 in grants will go to encouraging children’s literacy through the Written Word Committee of the Prince Edward County Arts Council, conflict resolution and healthy relationships for troubled youth through the Prince Edward Corrections Advisory Board, programing at the Bloomfield Centre for Creativity, Prince Edward Child Care Services’ Healthy Food Healthy Families program, work on the Millennium Trail through Wellington Rotary, and help with the purchase of SMARTboards at CML Snider School.

“These organizations represent many sectors and issues in the community, including children and youth, the arts, health, poverty relief, literacy and community infrastructure,” said Stevenson. “They also represent many places in Prince Edward County, reflecting the Community Foundation’s goal of supporting as much of the County as it can.”

Members of the Prince Edward District Women’s Institute and the County Community Foundation gathered Monday to celebrate the establishment of a new endeavour.

With an initial grant of $20,000, the Foundation’s District Women’s Institute Fund will provide grants to County organizations that support accessible transportation, women and children.

“One of the reasons we were so interested in this kind of partnership with the Community Foundation is that their goals are similar in many ways to ours” says District Women’s Institute Nancy Wood.  “The Foundation also takes a lot of the work, like issuing income tax receipts and managing the invested donations, off our hands.”

Each organization bases its activities and plans for the future on a strong, lengthy history of good work.  From the establishment of the first Women’s Institute in Canada in the 1890s to the first Canadian Community Foundation, begun in 1921, both organizations are supported by decades of experience and a vibrant national movement.

“There are now more than 180 Community Foundations in Canada.  In 2010, community foundations across the country granted more than $149 million.” says Tony Dean, County Community Foundation’s treasurer.  “This means that each community foundation has an incredible amount of collective experience to bring to partnerships like this one.”