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$875,000 in emergency COVID-19 funding awarded to area agencies

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From helping rural LGBTQ youth to feeding urban Indigenous families, more than two dozen efforts to carry people through the pandemic earned the most recent federal government grants in London.

The London Community Foundation and United Way Elgin Middlesex have announced more than $875,000 in grants, the second and perhaps final round of money coming from the federal government’s emergency funds.

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The need for help remains high, with 42 groups applying for $1.8 million in funding to the United Way in the latest round.

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“We’re still continuing to see a great deal of applications related to basic needs, food security, hygiene, those sorts of things,” said Kelly Ziegner, chief executive of the United Way Elgin Middlesex.

But the nature of programs getting funding is changing, she said.

More organizations are recognizing the need to get out of their buildings and into neighbourhoods to serve people during the pandemic, Ziegner said.

“I think that will be one of the positive legacies from this, that shift in how agencies are delivery programs and services.”

More organizations are also working together to apply for funds and help Londoners, said Martha Powell, chief executive of the London Community Foundation.

“We’re starting to see charities understanding the importance of working together and coming together, and help people in a cohesive way,” she said. “I think the word is getting out there: ‘To survive … we have to work better together.’ That’s what we want to see. You can do more together than working independently.”

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The London Community Foundation and United Way have worked together to ensure the federal grants don’t duplicate each other, Powell said.

The two organizations handed out about $3 million of federal funds to 56 non-profit programs and agencies in the summer. More than 120 were seeking a total of $6.2 million in the first round of funding.

The second round of funding opened for applications in October. The money has to be spent by March 31, 2021, and the national networks representing non-profits and foundations are advocating for more federal dollars for next year.

As the pandemic has worn on, the stress on vulnerable Londoners has grown, advocates and front-line workers say.

The Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Centre has seen demand triple for food help, said centre dietitian Jocelyn Zurbrigg.

In 2018 and 2019, the number of patients saying their food supply was insecure numbered in the mid 200s.

Through October of this year, that number is already past 500, and the number of people getting hampers at the centre has gone from 20 to 70, she said.

“We knew we had to do something. This is literally to put out fires right now, to address food insecurity in the next four months and how we can keep some of families fed and fed nutritiously.”

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The grant recipients are a mix of organizations offering food, shelter, counselling and support for Londoners.

About $31,000 is going to help LGBTQ youth in rural areas who are socially isolated during the pandemic.

“They really are struggling in the rural areas,” said Martin Withenshaw, president of the Rainbow Optimist Club of Southwestern Ontario.

“Youth in rural areas already are isolated by lack of transportation. Now, even if they could get somewhere, there’s no place to go.”

The grant will pay for speakers for online panels and other events aimed at teens, their friends and family, and for the storytellers at the Drag Queen Story Time, aimed at children and their families, Wittenshaw said.

“It is to let them know there are people the same as they are, to let LGBT2Q+ youth know it’s OK to be who they are,” he said.

Submit your questions and curiosities below, and let LFP’s Curious London take it from there.

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