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Our goal is the healthy development of children aged 0-12. The Foundation gives priority to initiatives focused on primary prevention: strategies which promote children’s wellness and proactively address potential problems by providing opportunities for learning and growth. We value the important role played by parents, caregivers, schools, neighbours, and the community at large in raising healthy children. We dream of a community where every child is supported and encouraged to reach their full potential.
Let’s Begin Again!
$150,000 over two years
Better Beginnings Waterloo is based on an acclaimed approach to child development that aims to prevent the development of emotional/behavioural problems in children, aged 5-9, living in vulnerable life situations, by enabling them and their families to successfully begin their educational experience through participation in integrated, holistic and relevant programs.
Afri-Can Village
$175,000 over two years
“It takes a village to raise a child”, ACAWRA aims to create a village that surrounds children in our community and aids in developing leaders. We aim to create an environment where children belong and feel protected while free to explore their creativity.
Creating Community Circles
$144,036 over two years
Creating Community Circles is a program that will address the long wait for services for both parents/caregivers and their child with a developmental disability. Participant-directed programming will focus on establishing informal supports and connections with peers in a space that fosters inclusion and belonging through sharing, education and play.
Building Pathways to Support in Cambridge and North Dumfries
$121,350 over two years
Porchlight Counselling & Addiction Services will continue and grow the Taming the Dragon program delivery in local schools in junior classrooms, and develop and deliver new Taming the Dragon programs for new audiences: intermediate classrooms, and caregivers. These programs will give participants the language, resources, and strategies they need to identify and manage anxiety, as well as how to seek additional support if needed.
Black Girl Excellence
$119,600 over two years
The Black Girl Excellence (BGX) Program exists to empower and uplift Black female-identifying children and youth in Cambridge with continued support for their mental health, creative expression and conversation. Our priority is to reduce systemic barriers, educate and empower the youth in the community.
Intergenerational Literacy Program for East African Families
$251,856 over two years
Somali Canadian Association of Waterloo Region will engage the East African community through an intergenerational literacy program supporting mothers with English language literacy while also building early literacy skills in children, giving the parent the ability to support their child’s emerging literacy, and building educational success and outcomes.
Youth Under the Rainbow
$152,493 over two years
SPECTRUM provides activities for 2SLGBTQ+ children and youth aged 4-12 in partnership with local libraries and arts organizations.
Reaching our Rural Youth Project
$142,845 over two years
Addressing barriers reaching youth aged 9-12 years. Implement a Youth Engagement Strategy to co-develop a youth-driven model that better serves youth and improves youth mental health. Engage youth in the rural townships to understand what youth want and need through connections with youth, led by the youth for youth.
Development of Child Therapy Programming
$30,000
Woolwich Counselling Centre aims to be an expert in child therapy and offers high quality, professional counselling to children and their parents. As a resource to the community, WCC works in partnership to provide groups and workshops at no cost. Through this project, Woolwich Counselling Centre will offer free parent workshops and preventative mental health education to children aged 6-12 at each school in the Townships of Woolwich and Wellesley. They will increase capacity on the existing child therapy team through additional training and resources.
Given the tremendous disruption that the pandemic brought, we did not feel that restricted program grants for children 12 and under was the most effective way to support our partners and the people they serve in 2020. Through conversations with nearly all of our current and recent charitable partners, we heard that leaders craved "breathing room"; support that would provide some temporary security while they began to look ahead.
The resulting framework aimed to provide program grant recipients, from the last several years of both the Children’s Initiatives and invited Community Support envelopes, with some flexibility and stability through 2021. We accomplished this by means of one-time, unrestricted grants. In most cases, these grants were scaled to the last payment an organization received, plus a 15% cushion in recognition of the significant revenue losses organizations are experiencing.
In addition to the proactive grants, the Foundation granted $957,677 through a competitive envelope in the fall of 2020. Child, youth and family-serving organizations in Waterloo Region submitted proposals for funds to “support the pivot”; whatever is needed to adapt or rethink for the interim time frame of coping with the ongoing pandemic.
Please see Community Support Grants to see the grants awarded.
