After decades of helping others in the community, the Distress Centre of Windsor Essex County hopes the community will come through for it.
The calling centre found out last March it would not receive the funding it applied for through the United Way. For 28 years, the United Way has provided the centre with almost $60,000, about 70% of its annual budget, but executive director Rushini Ponniah-Goulin doesn't blame the agency.
"The donations have gone down over the past few years, but of course, the need has been greater," she says. "They have a lot more requests coming in for funds with a lot less money coming in."
Since the announcement, the centre has exhausted the remaining funding from the umbrella agency and has been paying the bills with cash raised through fundraising.
Ponniah-Goulin says the centre is meeting with its partners in the community in a bid to find a way to move forward. She says it's also reaching out to residents for donations to close the funding gap. If it can't find the money, though, she admits the centre may have to close.
"It's a very, very far off possibility. The board of directors and I are working as hard as we can to make sure that doesn't happen."
The centre fields 3,000 calls a year and helps refer residents to social services in the community. It also takes calls from those who are lonely or suicidal.
