United Way's Rural Reach

Jeff Green | Nov 07, 2013

The Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington (KFL&A) United Way has a strong public profile in the City of Kingston. Its local board is chock full of business and institutional leaders in the city, with representatives from the top echelons of Queen's University, the school boards, INVISTA, Empire Life, RBC, BMO Nesbitt Burns, etc.

Yet the United Way is devoted to supporting people on the other end of the social spectrum. Support for youth at risk, combating homelessness, and poverty reduction are all major focuses for the $3 million that the KFL&A United Way expects to spend in 2014.

And although its fundraising efforts are also focused in the City of Kingston, the United Way is committed to supporting individuals and communities in the rural corners of Frontenac and Lennox and Addington County.

They do that in two ways, according to United Way Executive Director Bhavana Varma.

“Some of our programs are broad-based, covering the entire region, such as the support we provide for the CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) and to the Food Sharing Program, which covers all 96 schools in the region. The Success by Six program for young children is also active throughout the region.

“We also partner with agencies that are based in the rural communities. We use their lens to look at the needs and come up with solutions. Our agencies are wonderful partners in recognizing and reminding us that the needs are different in rural areas,” she said.

It is the community service agencies in Frontenac County (Northern Frontenac Community Services (NFCS) and Southern Frontenac Community Services – (SFCS)) that receive most of the project and ongoing funding from the United Way.

Among the services that the United Way contributes to at NFCS is the family counselling service, which provides free counselling for families in North and Central Frontenac and parts of South Frontenac. The service is available for families undergoing a variety of stresses, including mental health, financial, bereavement and more.

“They (NFCS) operate that program in a different way than an urban agency would. The people they service and the geography make it necessary for that service to come into the home a lot of the time. This is something they understand because they know the needs of their community. What we in turn require from them is ongoing monitoring of the service. They provide us with the kind of data we need to ensure the money we raise from the community is well spent. In that sense all of the partners we work with are the same, rural or urban,” said Varma.

The United Way also provides ongoing support for the NFCS Youth program, which has been ramping up over the last few years.

“There are so many opportunities for youth in the city, and so few in rural communities, and being able to encourage Northern Frontenac to have a program for youth is important to us,” said Bhavana Varma.

The relationship between the United Way and NFCS is a two-way street. NFCS has joined the employee United Way fundraising campaign, and has organized public fundraising events as well to support the annual United Way campaign. A bingo is scheduled for the Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake tonight, November 7, and a spaghetti dinner is set for November 28 at the Maples Restaurant (see Northern Happenings for details).

Southern Frontenac Community Services has been developing their relationship with the United Way in recent years, and received funding to help supplement their community support services for seniors' programs that are also funded by the Ministry of Health.

“There is an ever increasing demand for community supports in South Frontenac,” said David Townsend, the Chief Executive Officer of SFCS, “and the United Way has helped us respond to that demand.

For 2014, Townsend said SFCS is “trying to be more specific in quantifying and qualifying where the need really is” when applying for United Way support.

One program in particular, the Adult Day Program for the frail elderly, now has a total of 43 participants and SFCS only receives ministry funding for 32.

“We are hoping the United Way can help us to bridge that gap, because using wait lists for programs for the frail elderly is not something we are prepared to accept,” said Townsend, who is also applying to South Frontenac Township to support the Day Away Program.

The United Way KFL&A’s annual fundraising campaign is now entering its home stretch; $2.53 million has been raised thus far and the goal of $3.4 million is within reach.

“Eighty-three percent of the money we raise is through workplace campaigns,” said Bhavana Varma, “and the rest from fundraising events. Of the money we raise 12% goes to administration, which is quite a low number compared to other charitable organisations.”

The United Way fundraising campaign runs until the end of November.