Four months into my term as Chair of the Board, I can say that each day I learn more and more about the significant impact of the Foundation’s grants in communities across Ontario.

Building healthy and vibrant communities across Ontario is more than a tag line. It’s at the heart of what we do at OTF and what our grantees contribute to their communities across the province every day. The web of support that our grantees collectively represent also perfectly positions them to help us understand and respond to changing local needs.

When granting organizations work together the results can be remarkable.

There are many examples. OTF’s partnership in the Canadian Women’s Foundation Collaborative Fund for Economic Development is one. Our funding partners in this exciting initiative include the Metcalf Charitable Foundation, CIBC and other foundations and private donors.

At OTF, we are extremely proud of the calibre of our grant making and our grantees. Naturally, when others recognize our grantees, we are doubly pleased. Such is the case with Sarnia-Lambton Rebound.

The Sarnia-Lambton Rebound program received the Donner Award from the Donner Canadian Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to encourage individual responsibility and private initiative to help Canadians solve their social and economic problems.

During its inaugural meeting in Toronto on January 27 and 28, Ontario Trillium Foundation Board Chair Helen Burstyn and CEO Robin Cardozo announced a grant of $594,800 to the ambitious United Way Community Matters project.

The OTF grant supports a province-wide partnership involving 17 of the smallest United Ways in Ontario and has local communities mobilizing to participate.

Two of our new granting priorities, enhanced success for students and learners and healthier and more active Ontarians, were evident in a cluster of grants to some exceptional projects.

On February 9, OTF announced $2,070,900 in grants to seven charitable and not-for-profit organizations that serve children and youth. In attendance were MPP Laurel Broten, Parliamentary Assistant to the Premier, and Caroline DiCocco, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Children and Youth Services. They both applauded the seven grants, which will fund programs to address violence, substance abuse, and to support their mental health and well-being.

Ontario Trillium Foundation grants in various sectors are helping build capacity in Aboriginal and First Nations communities throughout Ontario.

Statistics suggest that the health of Aboriginal people is poorer than that of other Canadians. To help narrow the gap, OTF is supporting a project initiated by Mama-Wes-Wen, the North Shore Tribal Council. A key mandate of the council is to promote healing of community. The current project will see the implementation of a regional model of traditional healing that encourages cultural practices integrated into existing health services.

The Ontario Trillium Foundation is pleased to introduce 11 new Grant Review Team (GRT) Chairs. They each bring unique skills and perspectives to their new positions.

Chairs lead teams that review local requests for funding. They develop recommendations for grants, review and approve staff recommendations on declines of grant requests, participate in the Foundation’s communication activities at the local level and identify funding priorities that meet local needs and opportunities. As stewards of public funds, they are accountable to Ontario’s government and public.

> Algoma, Cochrane, Manitoulin, Sudbury - January 25
> Champlain - January 6
> Champlain - January 7
> Champlain - January 28
> Champlain - February 18
> Durham, Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge - January 24
> Durham, Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge - February 23
> Essex, Kent, Lambton - January 22
> Halton-Peel - January 31
> Muskoka, Nipissing, Parry Sound, Timiskaming - January 27
> Province-Wide - February 28
> Simcoe-York - January 14
> Thames Valley - January 15
> Thames Valley - January 18
> Toronto - February 10
> Waterloo, Wellington, Dufferin - February 11