Twenty-one local organizations are benefitting from micro-grants via the Barrie Community Foundation.
The money is from the foundation’s crisis fund and goes to organizations struggling to help the disadvantaged, easing the strain of a pandemic.
“It has been a tremendous privilege for the Barrie Community Foundation to have been able to step forward and help the Barrie community by distributing the monies with which we were entrusted by the citizens of Barrie,” says Marshall Green, Barrie Community Foundation, Chair. “We have been able to provide 21 organizations and agencies who have been struggling to help the disadvantaged in our community during this unprecedented crisis.”
Throughout the pandemic, the Barrie Community Foundation has granted more than $500,000 to organizations that are on the front lines of the pandemic response.
These funds have come from different streams in the Barrie Community Foundation, including endowment fund grants, local Community Crisis Fund, and the Federal Emergency Community Support Fund that they administered on a local level. The grants ranged from $1000-$20,000.
Suzanna McCarthy, Executive Director of the John Howard Society of Simcoe and Muskoka, one of this year’s recipients, says their $1,000 micro-grant is helping replace a piece of ageing technology which will have a great impact on their agency.
“This single improvement will have an incredible impact on our agency, allowing us to spend more time focusing on serving our community,” she says.
The organizations receiving Rapid Micro Grants this year include:
Gilda’s Club
YouthReach
The Gilbert Centre
Christmas Cheer
Barrie Native Friendship Centre
Glowing Hearts Give and Get
The John Howard Society of Simcoe and Muskoka
Catholic Family Services
Redwood Park Communities
Elizabeth Fry Society
Hospice Simcoe
Theatre By The Bay
Women and Children’s Shelter of Barrie
The David Busby Centre
Youth Haven
Epilepsy (Ontario) Simcoe County
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Barrie and District
Camphill Communities Ontario
Season’s Centre for Grieving Children
Child Advocacy Centre
New Path Youth and Family Services
“We’re grateful to be the conduit to get these funds out, supporting safe shelter for those fleeing abuse, food and warm clothes for those in need, technological support for seniors in isolation so they can communicate better with family and friends, retraining for those who lost their jobs in the pandemic and so much more,” adds Green.
Charitable donations to support Barrie’s Community Crisis Fund can be made online by clicking here
To set up your own endowment fund that allows you to give back and support your community year after year, contact Sarah Ingram, Executive Director of the Barrie Community Foundation, at 705-816-6368.