The United Way Perth-Huron is hoping to raise more than $2.5 million through its 2023-2024 fundraising campaign for the local organizations and programs it supports.
This year’s goal, a bump from the 2022-2023 campaign goal of nearly $2.3 million, was announced in Stratford at the organization’s annual Unite for a Bite campaign launch event in Market Square over Friday’s noon hour.
“We live in such a beautiful city, but in the margins – in the spaces you don’t see – it’s not so pretty,” United Way Perth-Huron Stratford and area community development manager Elizabeth Cooper said at Friday’s event. “If you look beyond our culture and our art, there are challenges to face. Skyrocketing prices, people struggling to cope with daily life, addictions, hunger and inequality is growing. … Food bank usage has increased, mental health for so many is declining and the ranks of those experiencing homelessness or teetering on the edge of homelessness have grown to alarming levels.
“At United Way, we are interested in understanding the problems because we are eager to find solutions,” Cooper continued. “We have amazing department at the United Way called the social research and planning council. They do research so the number that we will reveal to you today, our goal, is a real number and the money that comes through stays 100 per cent local – right here in Huron and Perth counties.”
Cooper said employees at more than 300 Stratford businesses have already signed up to run workplace campaigns in support of the local United Way’s 2023-2034 goal. Cooper encouraged employees at local businesses that have not yet signed up for a workplace campaign to follow suit and consider donating a day’s pay over the course of the next year.
“These events are happening across Huron and Perth, and it is a call to action,” Stratford Mayor and former United Way campaign co-chair Martin Ritsma said. “It’s a call to action for each individual to what they can to change the lives of an individual change lives in our community, so I thank you for being here. … On important thing the pandemic has taught is we need each other. We need each other here today and, most importantly, the people in our community who are most marginalized need us.
“Whatever you can do to support the campaign, you’re changing lives and you’re changing our community.”
According to the United Way Perth-Huron website, past donations from the Stratford and area community through the annual fundraising campaign and the nearly 20 local organizations it supports has helped 1,068 people with mobility issues access transportation, 616 people participate in food-skills programming, 534 people benefit from YMCA passes, 388 people in crisis access financial support, 184 men access post-incarceration supports, 32 children who witnessed violence receive counseling, and 20 at-risk youth access housing and supports.
“I think of all the partner organizations that receive funding from the United Way,” Perth-Wellington MP John Nater said. “It’s such a valuable resource here and so many different causes are helped by the funds raised by the United Way.”
For more information and to find out how to help by donating or volunteering with the campaign, call 519-271-7730 or 1-877-818-8867, mail to 32 Erie Street, Stratford, Ont., N5A 2M4, or visit perthhuron.unitedway.ca.
