Ontario Trillium Foundation grants $79,500 to Cambridge neighbourhood associations

Neighbourhood associations in Cambridge have received a Resilient Communities Grant of $79,500 through the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

The grant will support community engagement across Greenway-Chaplin Community Centre, Silverheights Neighbourhood Association, and Preston Heights Community Group.

“This is helping to rebuild and recover from the impacts of COVID-19, by supporting staffing costs and engaging experts to gather input, explore new collaboration opportunities, and develop a strategic plan,” said Sandra Gammage, community engagement coordinator at Silverheights Neighbourhood Association.

Gammage says the grant has allowed community engagement coordinators to be able to better support a variety of community events and outreach activities.

“These include Neighbourhood Day events in June at our three locations, the Mobile Market at Preston Heights, volunteer hangouts in the summer, welcoming Leader-In-Training volunteers back to in person summer camp, a youth pizza event held at Greenway, a Chamber of Commerce event and much, much more,” Gammage said.

“As well, we are currently working with a consultant to seek feedback from our participants, youth volunteers and community partners. This will give us insights and help us create a path to move forward.”

A recognition event was held at Greenway-Chaplin Community Centre on Dec. 1.

“This generous grant is pivotal in allowing us to better support community engagement across our neighbourhood-based organizations in Cambridge,” Gammage said.  

“This is an enormous contribution and allows us to reach many more community residents than we could have imagined.”