Life's Seasons in Sarnia has received a funding boost for its community based initiatives by the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF).
The trauma-informed organization provides confidential care and helps people overcome traumatic experiences.
It received $197,000 from the Resilient Communities Fund over two years.
Executive Director Tina Hunter said the first installment, received last year, helped the non-profit develop and revamp some initiatives.
"We have [developed] two manuals that we're going to be able to train with and have people purchase and use for trauma treatment for adults and children," she said.
The funding has also allowed the organization to start yearly conferences where people can be certified in being trauma informed and resilience focused.
Hunter said they've also been able to hire more staff.
"This grant's really been about having resiliency after the pandemic and being able to get back to where we were and to work on some initiatives going forward for our clients and for the community," she said.
This is the first OTF grant Life Season's has received, which Hunter called "a blessing."
"It's allowed us to do things that were dreams, dreams that were very important to us and that we hoped to get to one day but now they are a reality. We are able to work on things we have known are very important and would like to offer and now we can," she said.
"For the past year it's just been amazing what we've been able to do and we're excited that we have another year of being able to work on all the things that we've really been needing and wanting to get to," she added.
Life's Seasons started in a garage in 2011 and has now grown into serving an average of 678 active clients per year with an average 4806 appointments booked annually.
"We're extremely grateful for the opportunity to continue working in our community but also offering the things that were only dreams until we had this grant," Hunter said.