The United Way of Sarnia-Lambton's Board of Directors made some difficult decisions when deciding its 2023-2024 community investments.
Executive Director Dave Brown said the 2022 fall fundraising campaign fell short.
"The campaign achieved $1.426 million, which is about 87 per cent of the needs target," said Brown. "We're always a little bit disappointed that we didn't reach 100 per cent, obviously, but when you look at some of the good news stories within the campaign -- a lot of the small campaigns did better than last year, we picked up some new donors -- we're very pleased with those results."
Brown said funding was approved for 28 programs.
"Making the community investment decisions is never easy. There's always more requests than money available. It was particularly difficult this year of course, with raising less money than the previous year. So, we wanted to focus on what our priorities were, which is Poverty to Possibility, All That Kids Can Be, and Healthy People, Strong Communities."
Brown said funding to a couple programs was eliminated and one was reduced.
"The John Howard Society had withdrawn their Youth Life Skills program, because of some duplications, and unfortunately we had to make the decision to cut the Community Living Transitions Facilitator. Not because the programs are not effective, they were great programs, they just didn't fit within the priorities as well as other agencies did, and of course we just had less money available."
The YMCA Resource Houses program will receive an $8,600 increase to nearly $94,000. The program helps children in geared to income housing neighbourhoods with before and after school snacks and in some instances, lunches to take to school. Additional funds were needed due to the increased need and high cost of food.
Funding for the YMCA Autism Summer Camp was decreased by $13,000 to $30,000.
A one year Critical Services Grant of $15,000 was approved for River City Vineyard, and 50 hospital grade mattresses will be purchased with the funds for their shelter expansion.
Brown said they've already started planning for this fall's campaign.
"In fact, we've got a number of events planned this spring, including a 'Thanks a Latte' campaign with Coffee Lodge and 'March Bagel Madness' with The Bagel Factory."
Brown said this year's campaign kickoff will likely be Tuesday, September 19.
The full list of programs and the funding they received, can be found here.