Givers get Steinbach Community Foundation grants

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/10/2023 (557 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three groups used to giving to the community got to experience a little of what it feels to get at a grant awards evening Oct. 18.

The Steinbach Community Foundation delivered nearly $60,000 split between Recreational Opportunities for Children (ROC) Eastman, Steinbach Community Outreach, and HavenGroup’s Cedarwood Supportive Housing.

All three groups explained how what at first glance seem like blasé purposes the Community Services Recovery Fund cash will be spent on – long-term strategy planning, communication plans, staff training, and even accounting – are integral to the services they offer to so many people, often some of the community’s most vulnerable.

The first to be awarded was ROC Eastman, who have helped 800 kids from all over the Southeast since 2009 according to board member Jonanthon Fehr.

ROC Eastman plans to use the $14,500 they got to create a 25-year collective vision and strategy to sustainability. Board chair Shauna Doerksen explained what that means.

“We’ve only really been able to look forward three or four years in advance. And so these funds will really allow us to dream and scheme for a much longer period of time,” she said.

“What are the needs of our families; what are the barriers and how can we manage those and tackle them in a more long-term way instead of just taking a little chunk of time, piecemeal.”

Doerksen said this insight would help them figure out how to make recreation available to any child in the Southeast who wants it.

“We really envision a world where recreation isn’t a luxury, but is just a given,” she concluded.

Next up was Steinbach Community Outreach getting $20,985 for a new communication plan, to educate staff, and to utilize new systems for modernizations.

Charlene Kroeker explained how important this is for the 550 people experiencing poverty and homelessness they are helping this year. That’s up from 180 just five years ago.

Thankfully, an increase in volunteers from 40 to over 100 has helped tackle this challenge. Those volunteers and staff need training, something that was recently made incredibly obvious.

Kroeker told of how staff who just got their CPR training updated a few weeks ago jumped into action when a person waiting on a couch had a stroke.

“This money is literally saving lives,” she told the crowd gathered at the Steinbach Arts Council for the awards.

Staff will also be attending a homelessness seminar to learn new ways to deal with a growing problem. A new website is also on the way for Steinbach Community Outreach to reach people in a way that makes it easier to help out, especially as programs are stretched thinner with a slowing of donations post-Covid.

HavenGroup received $23,654 to enhance an accounting system, train staff and update procedures for its Cedarwood Supportive Housing.

CEO Tannis Nickel explained the work they do for seniors in Steinbach, and how the maybe not-so-glamourous work on accounting and procedures benefits people.

Cedarwood has been around since 1970, she said, providing low-income suites. In 2009, 29 supportive housing suites were added.

Nickel said she recently spoke to a resident who told her, “I don’t have to worry about a thing.”

When she asked him what he meant, he said the worry of looking after all those bills like Hydro were taken care of by HavenGroup.

“And I thought about that, and this system is what’s actually going to look after that for that resident and for the many other residents that live there,” she said.

And those software systems are being updated to increase security as more paperwork is put on the cloud computer database.

The annual Endow Manitoba Giving Challenge runs Nov. 13-20. The Province and Winnipeg Foundation matches donations during these dates up to a total of $4,000.

All money raised goes into Steinbach Community Foundation’s investment fund that generates interest, which is then given back every year to community groups looking to help the people who live here.

Donations during the challenge can be made online at endowmb.org.