I’m hopeful. I see a lot of people saying, ‘I can’t do everything and I can’t solve all of this – but I can be part of the solution.’ ”
Margaret Wills
board chair of Glen Cairn Community Resource Centre
Local resource centres are vital to healthy neighbourhoods, and they wouldn’t exist without United Way, a group of dedicated donors heard during a fireside chat with front-line staff on Oct. 17.
Poverty’s impact, and solutions for good
Attendees at the event heard how Glen Cairn Community Resource Centre is helping meet neighbours’ needs for food, connection and social supports.
“We see 1,000 people per month, and about 100 of them are first-timers who have never been to see us before,” said centre executive director Stanislav Rajic, noting that pre-COVID, about half that number came through the doors often seeking food, the most tangible need.
“But once we realize that person needs food, it allows us to have conversations to co-discover what else they need.”
Donors and robust partnerships are creating short- and long-term change, in part through the Good Food Project and the London Food Coalition which takes in and distributes surplus fresh produce to thousands of people across the region each month, said Jazz Walmsley, co-ordinator of the program.
United Way Elgin Middlesex was the catalyst for neighbourhood centres, noted Margaret Wills, chair of the Glen Cairn board of directors.
“Resource centres would not exist without United Way, and it’s your support that’s helped make resource centres possible,” Wills said.
And it’s making a difference.
“Things are changing. There’s more listening and less judgment of people in poverty,” Wills said.
‘Opportunities all around us’
At the annual gathering to highlight for leadership donors the impact of community investments, United Way also honoured dozens of people who have been supporters for more than 30 years.
Their contributions are bearing fruit and helping United Way tackle poverty locally, through 52 funded programs and services, said Mark Egbedeyi-Emmanuel, chair of the United Way 2023 Community Campaign.
“I’m reminded of an old saying: ‘When harvesting the fruit, remember those who planted the trees.’ We honour you – the ‘tree-planters’ among us,” Egbedeyi-Emmanuel said.
Milestone donors received pins to commemorate their long-standing commitment.
Egbedeyi-Emmanuel said United Way “provides the best opportunities to achieve the most good, for the most people, in the most strategic ways.”
He said opportunities are all around us. “Opportunities to reduce and prevent poverty right here at home. Opportunities to help people gain stability in basic needs like mental health and housing. Opportunities for stronger mentorship programs for kids, wherever they live, and opportunities for transportation to essential appointments for isolated seniors in rural areas.”
And he thanked United Way leadership donors “for setting the example of what a community can look like, when we treat everyone with respect and help one another.”
Keith Gibbons, retired president and CEO of McCormick Canada, which sponsored the event and is a corporate giving leader, said the company and its employees “choose to invest our time and gifts right here at home, because we believe in our community.”
Kelly Ziegner, president and CEO of United Way, noted that many attendees were leadership donors when she started as a sponsored employee more than two decades ago. “You believe in this organization and its importance in meeting community needs.”
