Community Care Peterborough Highlights How a $99,600 OTF Grant Has Made a Difference
Peterborough, ON (January 21, 2022): On Friday, Community Care Peterborough held a virtual meeting with MPP Dave Smith, MPP Laurie Scott and MPP David Piccini, and Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) volunteer Elizabeth Finnie-Hunt, to speak to how a $99,600 Resilient Community Fund grant awarded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) in late 2020 has made a difference. The Resilient Communities Fund was created by OTF to help the non-profit sector to rebuild and recover from the impacts of COVID-19.
“Community Care Peterborough delivers essential and critical services to our most vulnerable members in the community,” said Dave Smith, MPP for Peterborough-Kawartha. “Their team of volunteers, donors and staff have supported our residents throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. This capital investment will strengthen Community Care, enabling them to grow and further their good work in our community.”
Over the last year, Community Care Peterborough, which involves several communities, used the grant to help fund four key elements in its recovery plan: a new strategic plan; to reinvigorate its fundraising methods; build awareness of the agency; and to expand its virtual care capabilities.
“Our Government believes in the importance of supporting community-based organizations that improve the health and wellbeing of the people we serve,” said the Hon. David Piccini, MPP for Northumberland-Peterborough South. “These unprecedented times have highlighted the importance of having a strong health care system and we are incredibly grateful for the work Community Care Peterborough does to support better patient-centred care and the social determinants of health."
Funds from the year-long grant were helped with staffing and administrative costs, guidance for developing new strategies, purchasing new donor data management software, and technical equipment to expand online capabilities and communications, as well as health and safety supplies for rural offices.
“Community Care is a staple in Peterborough County and this funding will help community members access new and improved virtual services that are so important to residents,” said Laurie Scott, MPP for Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock.
Over the course of the pandemic, Community Care Peterborough has seen an increased need for the essential services and wasn’t able to host in-person programs or its usual fundraising activities. It saw the closure of its thrift stores for extended period of times.
“We adapted and extended programs to help even more residents of the City and County of Peterborough through these difficult times,” said Danielle Belair, Executive Director, Community Care Peterborough. “While we will remain COVID aware and vigilant, we are not only continuing to moving forward with our mission, but we can proudly say we are leading forward, with our new strategic plan. We undertook a facilitated strategic planning process to help us uncover ways to enhance our organization’s fundraising capacity and where to refocus our organization's programs and services so that they can reach their full potential for the communities we serve. Also as part of our funding, we were able to increase our staff capacity by hiring Donor Relations Assistant, Laura Strongitharm, to help us transition into our new software,” added Belair.
The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) is an agency of the Government of Ontario, and one of Canada’s leading granting foundations. Last year, nearly $112M was invested into 1,384 community projects and partnerships to build healthy and vibrant communities and strengthen the impact of Ontario’s non-profit sector. In 2020/21, OTF supported Ontario’s economic recovery by helping non-profit organizations rebuild and recover from the impacts of COVID-19. Visit otf.ca to learn more.
For more information about Community Care Peterborough visit www.commcareptbo.org
