January/February 2009 Table of Contents
- Choose 2bKind, 2009
- New ways to invest in community through United Way/Centraide
- Winter Warmth keeps lights and heat on for Ottawa families
- Nominate your company for the 2009 HIO Employer Awards
- Sharing Our Strengths once again — call for abstracts
- We’re looking for CBA of the Year nominations!
Choose 2bKind, 2009
With extremely cold temperatures and a transit strike over a month old, residents in Ottawa could benefit from a little more kindness these days. Enter Kindness Week, the brainchild of Rabbi Reuven Bulka, who helped to launch this first annual initiative in 2008 with the help of a group of volunteers from all sectors of the community and United Way/Centraide as facilitator.
Kindness Week 2009 takes place February 16-22.
New this year is Drive for Drivers, which will extend beyond the week. Volunteer drivers will provide transportation, at a reasonable cost, to seniors and adults with disabilities who need to get to medical appointments. Partners in the project are the Ottawa Community Support Coalition, Volunteer Ottawa, The Good Companions, Glebe Centre, United Way Ottawa and community volunteers. To apply to be a volunteer driver or for more information, you can call 613-236-0428, ext. 230 or e-mail drivers@kindottawa.ca.
And similar to last year, there’ll be:
- kindness cards for people to pay it forward;
- a chance for citizens to share their stories on the Kindness Week Ottawa website as they receive and trade the cards;
- kindness bus crews made up of volunteers and students to spread the word and commit random acts of kindness; and
- kindness toolkits for teachers to use in the classroom and employers to use in the workplace.
So, fellow Ottawans, choose2bKind once again. Check out www.kindottawa.ca.
New ways to invest in community through
United Way/Centraide
United Way/Centraide Ottawa celebrated a significant milestone at the end of 2008 with the launch of a new way for donors to make a real difference in the lives of others.
Donors who have a special interest in a particular area — children and youth, for example — and who want to make a major contribution to the community work with United Way/Centraide to develop a new program or enhance an existing project.
It’s an example of venture philanthropy — the kind of thing that attracts philanthropists such as Bill Gates, Bill Clinton and Alan Greenspan.
In the case of United Way/Centraide, donors and funders, including corporations, foundations and governments, are able to tap into our organization’s strong network of alliances and partnerships to help support a community need — one that meets their own interests and desires.
The first such gift was announced in December, when Stephen and Jocelyne Greenberg and their family donated $1 million over 10 years to expand two after-school homework clubs in south-east Ottawa, in the Banff Avenue and Confederation Court neighbourhoods. The couple has a personal interest in helping children and youth reach their full potential. They also wanted to do more for their community than simply writing a cheque allows.
“As a donor, it is very exciting to identify an area of need and then to be able to work with skilled people in that field to create a program to address those needs,” says Stephen. “United Way/Centraide’s Investor Development team gave us the means to collaborate on a program that is important to our family, one that will help keep kids learning and engaged in school.”
“It’s a powerful opportunity for a special kind of donor to be able to shape a gift that meets one’s desires; to take a financial commitment and create something significant for the donor and our community,” says Michael Allen, President and CEO of United Way/Centraide.
To find out more about this new line of business, contact Carole Gagnon, Vice-President, Investor Development, at 613-228-6893 or by e-mail at cgagnon@unitedwayottawa.ca.
Winter Warmth keeps lights and heat on for Ottawa families
Winter Warmth in Ottawa is one of 16 initiatives operating throughout Ontario, with United Ways/Centraides teaming up with their local utility companies to provide an emergency grant to eligible low-income families and individuals.
Ottawa’s own Winter Warmth initiative has been keeping an average of 160 households warm every year since 2004-2005. In a climate as cold as ours, it’s an essential — and welcome — service for those families living at or below the poverty line who are in arrears or at risk of going into arrears on their energy bills and have exhausted all other sources of financial support.
Last winter, 207 families in Ottawa received assistance with their heating bill — a total of 662 people, 376 of whom were children. That’s up from the 157 households that received assistance the previous winter.
This is how it works. Enbridge Gas Distribution and Hydro Ottawa provide the funding and United Way Ottawa provides administration support and management. A network of 18 community organizations is in place to review applications, while the Salvation Army Ottawa Booth Centre oversees the application process and distributes the funds to eligible households.
“We are delighted to partner with Hydro Ottawa and Enbridge on this important initiative, which helps so many families in need,” says Michael Allen, President and CEO of United Way/Centraide. “Their leadership helps to keep the lights and the heat on for hundreds of families in Ottawa every year, and our community benefits greatly from their commitment to making this a better place to live.”
Now in its fourth season, this year’s initiative launched in December and runs until April 2009.
For information on how to apply for Winter Warmth funding, contact the Salvation Army Ottawa Booth Centre at 613-241-1573.
Nominate your company for the 2009 HIO Employer Awards
Close to 70 per cent of Ottawa’s new immigrant population has a post-secondary education, but many are under- or unemployed. With key sectors of the national economy struggling because of an acute shortage of skills, it’s critical that employers tap into this pool. More and more employers in the Ottawa area are doing just that, thanks to the work of Hire Immigrants Ottawa (HIO), a Government of Ontario-funded initiative that counts as its lead partners the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce, le Regroupement des gens d’affaires de la Capitale nationale and United Way Ottawa.
HIO will recognize six local employers for their recruitment and retention policies and practices towards successfully integrating skilled immigrants into their workforce at the Employer Council of Champions Summit in April. Award categories include small, medium and large private- and public-sector organizations or businesses in the National Capital Region.
The nomination deadline for the second annual HIO Awards is February 6. You can find out everything you need to know about the nomination process at www.hireimmigrantsottawa.ca.
The 2008 HIO award recipients were Algonquin College, GEM Healthcare Inc., CGI, MBNA (Bank of America) and Scotiabank.
Sharing Our Strengths once again — call for abstracts
In just five months, staff and volunteers from community organizations in Ottawa will be sharing strengths, acquiring new skills and increasing their ability to serve their clients at United Way Ottawa’s 8th annual Sharing Our Strengths Community Conference. This year’s conference takes place on June 24 and 25 at Ashbury College, and like past conferences, offers considerable learning opportunities for participants.
To make the conference affordable and relevant, we’re looking for people to deliver workshops, on a voluntary basis as an in-kind contribution, on a topic that is relevant to the non-profit sector in Ottawa. The workshop should be interactive, creative, and offer something new and exciting for participants.
The deadline for submitting your abstract online is Friday, February 6 at 5:00 p.m. For details on the Call for Abstracts guidelines, click here.
Conference workshops topics will be offered in six streams – and potential topics are outlined below. Suggestions for other sessions that fit into these streams are also welcome.
- Leadership and governance — building inclusion and diversity in your organization; managing risk; facilitating organizational change; building strategic partnerships.
- Operational effectiveness — managing volunteers; strengthening your volunteer program; developing organizational policies and procedures.
- Financial sustainability — alternative funding options (sponsorships, advertising income, pay-for-service structures); developing a multi-year financial plan; writing effective proposals.
- Strengthening community impact — conducting asset-based community and learning needs assessments; developing community action plans.
- Personal development — delivering effective presentations; developing your brand strategy; website communications; basic advocacy skills.
We’re looking for CBA of the Year nominations!
Every year, at our Community Builder of the Year Awards Gala, we honour and celebrate groups in our community that have helped to make Ottawa a better place in which to live and work. We’re looking for nominations for our 2009 event, which takes place on May 28.
If you know an organization, partnership, agency or neighbourhood group that has worked passionately to help “build our community,” we want to hear from you. The deadline is Friday, March 27. For more information, click here.