Fall 2011 Community Grants Recipients Announced

Community Foundation for Kingston & Area presented Community Grants worth $72,858 to 21 local organizations

The Community Foundation for Kingston & Area gave away a total of $72,858 from 28 different funds to 21 community projects, in addition to the $52,654 already granted this spring. At the Grants Ceremony on November 23, the new grant recipients provided short descriptions of their projects. “The Grants ceremony provides a rich vignette of the community,” said Marilyn Banting, the Foundation’s Grants Committee Chair. “It gives everyone the opportunity to hear of the incredible projects that the various community groups are engaging in.”

In keeping with the Community Foundation’s “360° granting”, or providing grants to a broad range of community interests, this fall’s grants include a locally-produced video to help teach safe cycling in Kingston, three different projects that support currently or formerly homeless in their transition to a more stable existence, a SmartBoard to minimize educational barriers for people with intellectual disabilities, a website to look up the water quality at 32 local beaches, a celebration of Art’s birthday, and cooking classes that teach home-alone youngsters in low-income neighbourhoods how to make nutritious meals for themselves.

“The grants represent the earnings of 28 different funds - large and small- that were set up by individuals and companies to support the community, “ said Vikram Varma, the executive director of the Community Foundation. “The community grants are about giving local organizations the financial means to implement some great ideas on how to improve life in Kingston.” The Assante Financial Management-Fenlon Division, the Sunnyside Children’s Foundation, the Ballytobin Foundation, the Larry Gibson Estate and Community Response to Neighborhood Concerns also provided funds for this grant round.

List of Fall 2011 grants:

Boys and Girls Club of Kingston and Area, After School Connections Transportation Program, $4,000 (year 2 of a 5-year grant) (Alcan Endowment Fund)
Each day, 60-80 children participating in After-School Connections will receive transportation from designated schools to the Robert Meek Community Youth Centre with a recently-leased 24 passenger bus. The bus will deliver the children to the Robert Meek Clubhouse in time for Hot Supper and Evening Programs, and return them afterwards to their point of origin.

Cycle Kingston: “Cycling Safety Promotion Video”, $2,000 (The Tragically Hip Community Fund, The Classic Fund, Community Fund, McNevin Family Fund)
Cycle Kingston will produce a Kingston-specific Safe Cycling promotion video which will aid them in providing safe cycling education to children and adults in a classroom setting, at festivals, and on their website.

Dawn House Women's Shelter: “Dawn House Women's Shelter Resource and Support Room”, $4,000 (Community Fund)
Dawn House Women's Shelter wishes to create a fully equipped resource room within the shelter where staff will be able to increase the supports available to homeless women and their children. Children and Youth residing in the shelter will be helped to keep their school year complete throughout their transition to permanent housing. All residents will have greater access to individual and small group counselling and life skills training.

Domino Theatre Inc.: “Domino Theatre: Accessible for the Deafened and Hard of Hearing”, $6,213 (Community Fund, Anonymous Fund, Cyril E. Wharrie and Evelyn D. Wharrie Fund, Gordon Barr Ltd. Fund)
As part of Domino Theatre’s move to the Harold Harvey Arena, the grant will pay for an infrared listening device system, enabling the deafened and hard of hearing to enjoy affordable, quality theatre at this long-standing community institution.

H'art School of Smiles Inc.: “SmartBoard: Enriching Curriculum for People with Special Needs”, $3,000 (Marion Meyer Opportunity Fund, Community Fund)
H'art School will enrich its arts and education curriculum for adults with intellectual disabilities by incorporating a SmartBoard in its H'art Prep program in order to improve basic literacy, numeracy and adaptive behaviour. The enriched programming will also be available to children and youth with intellectual disabilities during March Break and summer workshops.

Home Base Housing: “Tenant Community Kitchen”, $3,120 (Alcan Endowment Fund)
This program will help formerly homeless tenants of Home Base Housing's Supportive Housing Program to acquire practical life-skills. Twice weekly, tenants are invited to participate in a three-hour session to work collaboratively to choose recipes, develop meal budgets, prepare well-balanced meals, clean-up after the meal, and take home portions of the meal for future consumption.

Kingston Employment and Youth Services: “Diversity Works”, $900 (Community Fund, Frank & Sarah Good Memorial Fund, Eddie Bak Memorial Fund)
The Diversity Works Symposium on November 24th will bring together new immigrants, local businesses, and community organizations to share knowledge, build contacts, and promote the importance of internationally-educated professionals in our local economy. This event will offer insights to both job-seekers and employers, and will create opportunities for them to meet, network, and find solutions to their individual challenges.

Kingston Youth Shelter: “Winter Warm Up”, $3,000, (Community Fund, Ellen Sheperd Community Fund, William Cherry Fund, Ronald and Mildred Grant Family Fund, Neil Currie Davis Fund)
Winter Warm Up allows homeless youth the opportunity to enjoy a nutritious lunch, get a break from the cold weather and access a counsellor during the day when the shelter is usually closed. This will help problem solve housing, employment, education and health issues during regular business hours, allowing for a more timely follow-through and higher success rate when accessing other agencies and services.

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper: “Swim Guide: Kingston & Area”, $2,000 (Community Fund)
This project is designed to promote and protect our region's 32 natural beaches. The website www.theswimguide.org and a cell phone app will help the public find the closest monitored beach, identify the places where it is safe to swim, and report pollution problems.

Museum of Health Care at Kingston: “Waterborne Disease Education Program”, $2,525 (Community Fund)
The development of an education program for elementary and secondary school students on the topic of Waterborne Diseases, linked to the Ontario science and geography curriculum for grade 7 & 8. The program includes an introduction to the biology, history, and prevention of waterborne diseases, hands-on activities, and a tour of a water treatment facility.

Pladec Day Care Centre Inc.: “Reopening the Infant Playground”, $2,500 (Ontario Endowment for Children and Youth in Recreation, Gordon F. Tomkins Funeral Home Children’s Endowment Fund)
Pladec Day Care Centre in central Kingston is licensed for 40 children from ages 0-6. The infant playground is currently not in use because of poor surfacing and safety concerns. With this grant, artificial grass will be installed in the infant playground so that it can reopen by the end of this year.

Queen's University - Agnes Etherington Art Centre: “Summer SmARTs”: $2,000 (Edward Ratcliffe Fund)
Summer SmARTs comprises one one-week Painting and Mixed-Media Course and two one-week Art Day Camps under the direction of local artists, offered at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in July 2012, for Kingston's youth. Bursaries will assist economically-disadvantaged children and youth to participate.

Spelling Bee of Canada, “Kingston Region Spelling Bee”, $600 (Elisabeth Heney Fund for Literacy, Community Fund, Kingston Whig-Standard Literacy Endowment Fund,) Youth aged 6 to 14, coached for the 2012 Kingston Region Community Spelling Bee next April, will meet other spelling enthusiasts, learn spelling tips and tricks, and develop confidence in public speaking. The grant will be used for recruitment of participants and to subsidize entrance fees for children from low-income families.

CFRC 101.9 FM Radio Queen's University: “Art's Birthday Celebration”, $1,000 (Ballytobin Foundation Flow-through Fund)
Art's Birthday is an annual event first proposed in 1963 by French Fluxus artist Robert Filiou as a public holiday to celebrate the presence of art in our lives. Kingston joins the movement through CFRC 101.9fm's Art's Birthday celebration, a day-long exploration of art on-air, featuring multidisciplinary, collaborative, sound-based performances.

Kingston Canadian Film Festival: “The 2012 Local Shorts Program”, $3,000 (Ballytobin Foundation Flow-through Fund)
The Local Shorts Program provides valuable exhibition space for local filmmakers to showcase their short films before feature-length films at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival. It nurtures and supports local film production, and provides Kingstonians with access to locally-made films.

Kingston Community Health Centres - Better Beginnings for Kingston Children: “Bounce Back: Resiliency Parenting Program”, $6,000 (Sunnyside Children’s Foundation Endowment Fund)
Bounce back is a ten session, evidence-based skills training parenting program designed to promote resilience in children six years and younger, for example, problem solving and conflict resolution skills, emotional regulation, empathy and optimism. It will promote children's resilience by increasing parents' awareness of the importance of creating resilience-rich environments for young children by role modeling, resilient thinking and actions in their daily interactions with their children.

Kingston Interval House: “The Me I AM”, $3,000.00 (Sunnyside Children’s Foundation Endowment Fund)
The Me I AM project will deliver client-centred and holistic support groups to children and youth, using various creative mediums (such as journaling, photography, scrap booking and quilting) to facilitate healing among children and youth who have or are experiencing violence.

Queen Elizabeth Collegiate and Vocational Institute – SUMMIT Program: “SUMMIT Meets OMEGA In San Francisco”, $9,000 (Sunnyside Children’s Foundation Endowment Fund, Larry Gibson Community Fund, Community Response To Neighbourhood Concerns) SUMMIT is a program for boys at risk in grades 9-12 at Queen Elizabeth CVI. OMEGA Boys’ Club is a program dedicated to keeping youth “alive and free” in San Francisco. Our aim is to bridge the 3879 km distance to bring the two groups face to face so that OMEGA can share their life changing message with the boys in the SUMMIT program. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity holds the possibility to change the way the boys in SUMMIT see themselves and their places in the community.

The Princess of Wales Own Regiment Foundation: “Travelling Exhibit from PWOR Museum on History of the Regiment and of Kingston”, $2,500 (Douglas Branton Fell Memorial Fund, Community Fund, Chown Fund) The project is the creation of a travelling museum exhibit, based upon the PWOR Museum collection, highlighting the links over 150 years between the Regiment and the life and culture of Kingston, as well as the role of the Regiment as a portal for Kingstonians to serve Canada at home and abroad. The exhibit will engage Kingstonians, teach them more of their history, attract tourists and, when it travels out of Kingston, will be an ambassador for Kingston as a destination for those with a nose for history.

Queen's University: “Queen's Conference on Philanthropy 2012”, $2,500 (Assante Financial Management – Fenlon Division Endowment Fund) Themed "Humanity, it's the Heart of the Matter", QCOP 2012 will inspire undergraduate delegates from across Canada to adapt the lens through which they make decisions in a socially conscious manner, and to expose them to the numerous ways they can get involved. Through the Outreach Program, delegates will be given the opportunity to volunteer for local organizations.

Kingston Family YMCA: “Now You're Cooking”, $10,000 (Assante Financial Management – Fenlon Division Endowment Fund, Ontario Endowment for Children and Youth in Recreation, Community Fund, Michael Potter Memorial Fund, Phil Quattrochi Memorial Fund )
In this popular program, children aged 6-15 in low-income neighbourhoods learn to make informed diet/exercise decisions. To tackle inactivity and poor nutrition, the program offers usable, age-appropriate information and hands-on skills, focusing on exercise, food shopping, meal preparation, and nutrition.