Working Together Magazine - Spring 2016

WORKINGTOGETHER

IN THIS ISSUE: • Celebrating 95 years • Supporting people, places and pets; one donor’s legacy • Helping kids carve their own Pathways A Magazine of The Winnipeg Foundation | Spring2016

Polar persuasion: Artist Kal Barteski honours bears with new fund

Generations of giving Page 8

CanU be your best?

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Supporting newcomers Page 24

New life for Leacock Estate Page 26

Working Together is published by The Winnipeg Foundation.

P: 204.944.9474 | TF: 1.877.974.3631 F: 204.942.2987 | E: info@wpgfdn.org Registered charity number: 119300960RR0001 For more information about The Foundation, please visit our website at wpgfdn.org.

Publications Mail Agreement No. 40623039 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: The Winnipeg Foundation 1350-One Lombard Place Winnipeg, MB R3B 0X3 We look forward to hearing from you! If you have comments about this publication, If you do not wish to receive this publication, contact us.

On the Cover: Winnipeg artist Kal Barteski is supporting polar bears through a new fund at The Foundation. Read more on page 6.

Justice Deborah McCawley Board Chair

I am so pleased to take over as Community News Commons initiative Chair on this 95th anniversary year is teaching citizen journalists how to for The Winnipeg Foundation. We’ve share stories that matter to them. And accomplished a lot in our nine-and-a– our upcoming Express Yourself video half decade history thanks to the booth will quite literally give people a committed and thoughtful donors who chance to have their voices heard. Read have worked with us for generations. about these – and other projects – in You can read the latest stories of hope, this issue of Working Together. impact and dreams Not only is this a for our community’s birthday milestone, future throughout this but last year was also a Not only magazine. granting milestone for The Ensuring Winnipeg Foundation. We granted is this a is welcoming for all $27.7 million to 900 birthday can be challenging; charitable organizations our community is – the most in our history. milestone, at an interesting And of course this is all but last year crossroads as we work thanks to generous donors was also a to honour the history who have entrusted us with and cultures of our their dreams for the city. granting Indigenous Peoples I look forward milestone and uphold the to continuing these principles of the Truth collaborative efforts for The and Reconciliation with my fellow Board Foundation.

Commission of members who, like you, Canada, while also are committed to this We granted welcoming 2,000 community. Thank you to $27.7 million Syrian refugees. The Susan Millican, outgoing to 900 Foundation will Board Chair, for her continue to make three years of exceptional charitable grants to projects in leadership. Both Ms. organizations Millican and the rest of these priority areas, while also supporting our Board will continue – the most in the full spectrum of to shape The Foundation’s our history. charitable needs in thinking and strategic our city. direction to achieve our We are also working mission of “a Winnipeg hard to empower where community life those who want to make a difference. flourishes for all.”

Our Fast Pitch program is building the We have a proud history and a capacity of charitable organizations promising future, and I’m excited to by fostering relationships between the spend the next three years helping charitable and business sectors. Our shape it.

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please send them to: ssmith@wpgfdn.org

A Message from

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The Winnipeg Foundation celebrates its 95th year with two $950,000 grants

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inety-five years is a long time. It’s doubtful our founder William Forbes Alloway, or any of The Foundation’s historic donors, could have anticipated the needs of present day Winnipeg when The Winnipeg Foundation formed 95 years ago.

But every donor to The Foundation has something in common—the foresight to realize needs of our community will change. These donors understand that by building endowments our community will receive support For Good. Forever.

Throughout the multiple generations The Foundation has served during our history, Winnipeg’s culture of generosity has remained strong. You can read stories in this magazine of the generous donors who are helping our community with financial support, and others who have been on the receiving end of that support and are now giving back with the gift of their own time.

And you can learn about families who are involving multiple generations in philanthropy, and those who are sharing their own stories of triumph to help others overcome adversity.

All of the stories in this edition of Working Together are about passionate people who love our community and through their generosity, foresight, hard work and dedication, are leaving a legacy. We hope you’ll be as inspired as we are.

Although 95 years is a long time, Forever is even longer.

Thanks to our prairie culture of generosity you can count on The Foundation supporting our community For Good. Forever.

The Foundation made a $950,000 grant to St. Amant Centre, so it can better-serve Manitobans with developmental disabilities and autism. The grant will support extensive renovations to St. Amant’s facilities, aid in the development of a community clinic, and facilitate research.

The Winnipeg Art Gallery was the recipient of the second $950,000 grant, which will support programming and capital costs associated with its new Inuit Art Centre.

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These grants will be drawn from the hundreds of Community Building funds held at The Foundation; and a number of Field of Interest Funds: the Marion I. and Gordon Douglass Fund, the Arnold William and Natalie Riedle Memorial Fund, the Samuel Gilfix Fund; as well as the Moffat Family Fund, a Donor-Advised Fund.

The Winnipeg Foundation through the years

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1924 T he Foundation’s second 1927 A bequest from Elizabeth gift is an anonymous Alloway is The Foundation’s contribution in an envelope first estate gift. inscribed “The Widow’s Mite.” Inside are three gold coins worth a total of $15, setting the premise for our community foundation; it is not the size of the gift but the giving that matters.

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1921 T he Manitoba Legislative Assembly passes an Act to create The Winnipeg Foundation and William Forbes Alloway, head of the private banking firm Alloway & Champion, makes the founding gift.

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A legacy from the past, a promise to the future Our CEO reflects on The Foundation’s first 95 years April 26, 2016 marks the 95th anniversary of The Winnipeg Foundation. As Canada’s first community foundation, we have a longer history of community service than our colleagues and therefore a greater opportunity to reflect on the impact of our beloved institution.

Any such reflection must recognize our donors are forward thinking. The Winnipeg Foundation is endowment based, which means donors invest today for the benefit of tomorrow.

“I owe everything to this community and I feel that it should derive some benefit from what I have been able to accumulate,” wrote our founder William Forbes Alloway in 1921.

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Alloway’s gifts, and those of his wife Elizabeth, continue to generate grants decades later.

By Richard L. Frost, CEO, The Winnipeg Foundation

Each and every day, we see generous community-minded people creating or contributing to one of our more than 3,000 endowments, always with an eye to the future.

A willingness to set aside a portion of one’s earnings to be invested for the longer term well-being of fellow citizens is not a common characteristic; most of us want to see immediate results. But for 95 years, The Winnipeg Foundation has enjoyed the good fortune of being supported by wonderfully committed people willing to pool their resources to provide a higher quality of life to citizens they will never know.

In our 95-year history, there have only been five Executive Directors. (I’ve been here since 1997 and have almost achieved an average tenure!) To celebrate this milestone,

“ The growth and development of a community foundation will always depend on the respect for its judgment that has been engendered in the public mind.” Hugh Benham, 1962 The Winnipeg Foundation through the years 1959 T he Herbert M. Tucker Fund, the first Field of Interest Fund, benefits summer camps and recreation programs for children.

1930 P eter Lowe, who has acted as volunteer Secretary since 1921, becomes The Foundation’s first paid employee. His annual salary is $625.

1944 M rs. Muriel Richardson becomes The Foundation’s first female Board member.

1980 T he Foundation expands granting to include human, natural and heritage resources.

1946 The Margaret Scott Nursing Mission Fund, The Foundation’s first Scholarship Fund, is created.

1958 T he Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra starts the first Agency Fund.

1981 T he Thelma and Steward Martin Heritage Fund, the first Donor-Advised fund, is established.

1990 C ommunity Foundations of Canada, an umbrella group for the philanthropic movement, forms.

1999 T he Foundation launches Youth in Philanthropy, a granting program for high school students.

I’m looking back at two articles published in Canadian Welfare—one written by Peter Lowe, our first Executive Director, in 1957 and the other written by Hugh Benham, our second ED, in 1962.

What did they see in our future and how have things changed?

The first and most obvious change relates to the scale of Winnipeg Foundation operations. In 1957, total assets at market value were just over $5 million and grant-making reached $189,000. Five years later in 1962, assets were more than $6 million and grant distributions amounted to $271,000.

“ If the past is any criterion, many of the needs and causes we regard highly today will over the years have disappeared and other contemporary needs will have taken their place.”

Peter Lowe, 1957

Today, total assets are more than a hundred times greater.

Distributions reached $27.7 million in 2015 and more than 900 different charitable agencies received support.

Such remarkable growth and impact has been possible because of the faith and willingness of generous donors to create and support endowments for our community.

• Connecting our generous donors to the work of community agencies • Addressing inequality and advancing compassion • Enhancing the vitality of our city • Empowering those who want to make a difference The Foundation’s work 50 years ago was aligned with these goals. There was recognition endowments provide great flexibility for donors to decide philanthropic direction.

Peter Lowe wrote, “They may designate a preferred charity or stipulate a field of service to which their funds are to be devoted. Donors may also indicate whether they wish their donation carried as a continuing fund or whether the principal, as well as the income is to be disbursed over a given term of years.”

In 2015, about 15 per cent of Winnipeg Foundation grants were what we call “flow through.” That is to say, while we have anchored our identity in the creation of permanent legacies, we have always worked with donors who bring different strategies and perspectives to philanthropy.

While every donor wants flexibility to set their own direction, Peter Lowe gave particular emphasis in his commentary to the importance of allowing The Foundation some discretion.

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“Human conditions change so rapidly that a project that is worthwhile today may be useless, harmful or nonessential tomorrow,” Mr. Lowe wrote.

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2003 T he Literacy for Life Fund is launched. This is the first fund initiated by The Foundation.

2004 T he Foundation makes the largest grant in its history: $6 million over 10 years, to the Canadian Museum of Human Rights.

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2008 T he Foundation launches its Downtown Green Spaces Strategy, a $3 million investment in public amenities including Upper Fort Garry Historic Site, Central Park and Old Market Square.

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2001 T he Foundation receives a stunning $100 million gift from the Moffat Family.

The vision of our Foundation is “a Winnipeg where community life flourishes for all.” In reading the Peter Lowe and Hugh Benham articles, it’s clear our fundamental course has not changed. They would readily have agreed with the four key themes of our current Strategic Plan:

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“ You can’t go up and down the street knocking on doors in this business. If your management and its policies won’t attract funds to your foundation, nothing will.” Hugh Benham, 1962

We echo his sentiments; at any given time we are processing dozens of applications from community organizations seeking support and of course, donors who allow some discretion enable The Foundation to respond.

Hugh Benham put focus on the importance of the Board and the management policies it develops to ensure prudent stewardship of gifts. Long term success depends on “people who not only command the respect of the community but also know a great deal about its needs.”

Mr. Benham lauded the development of The Vancouver Foundation as a “shining example.” He wrote, “While we have great faith and pride in our own Winnipeg Foundation, we wouldn’t like to predict that it will still be bigger than Vancouver’s 10 years from now.”

Today there are 191 community foundations in Canada.

Vancouver, Calgary and Winnipeg are the largest.

Perhaps the most interesting reflection on these two articles is what they don’t say. For example, there is no reference to “The Widow’s Mite” – the second gift ever received by The Foundation: three gold coins worth $15.

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Today, we place enormous emphasis on the importance of the everyday philanthropist. It is not the size of the gift but the giving that matters. Countless endowments are being built by hundreds of donors working together for a common cause. Planned gifts will always play a critical part in the growing impact of The Winnipeg Foundation.

However, it is generally the smaller gifts to some appealing fund that introduce endowment-building as a possibility

in the mind of a future fund holder. Accessibility and community engagement are key characteristics of today’s Winnipeg Foundation.

Peter Lowe and Hugh Benham could not have anticipated the development of Donor-Advised Funds, where an increasing number of families actively participate in grant decisions. The fact there are now more than 350 Scholarship Funds and almost 200 Agency Funds would also surprise them. Foundation initiatives like the Centennial Neighbourhood Project, Nourishing Potential and our Downtown Green Spaces Strategy would undoubtedly fulfill their greatest aspirations.

As today’s generous donors continue to build capacity, we can only wonder about the innovative approaches The Winnipeg Foundation will pursue 50 years from now.

However, we can certainly be confident its impact on community well-being will be profound.

“ Each fund, whether individual or collective, bears the name of the donor or a name given to it by donors—it is a foundation within a larger foundation.”

Peter Lowe, 1957

The Winnipeg Foundation through the years

2013 T he You Can Do It Awards are launched.

2015

2015 T he Alloway Arch and Widow’s Mite Fountain open at The Forks.

2011 T he Nourishing Potential Fund is launched.

Thoughtful donors have been

CELEBRATING OUR

Generous Donors THANK YOU!

supporting our community through gifts to The Winnipeg Foundation since 1921. This generosity and foresight will benefit Winnipeg Forever. In the following pages we share stories of just a few of these people. Each of these generous gifts conveys the story of a special person and that person’s hope for future generations. We are proud to safeguard these legacies.

New Funds Since the last issue of Working Together was published (Fall 2015), donors from all walks of life have established funds that express their philanthropic goals and wishes for our community. During this same time period, one local charitable organization started a new Agency Fund at The Winnipeg Foundation, and our colleagues at rural Manitoba community foundations started two new funds.

INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY FUNDS

Individuals and families have started the following funds, which support the community in a variety of ways.

• 2 Anonymous Funds • Brian and Shirley Akins Fund • Amber Scholarship Fund • The Aquamarine Fund • James A. and Jean Bracken Fund • Peggy and Alex Colonello Fund • Robert and Irene Comrie Vision Fund • A Critical Cause Fund • Serena Helen Kraayeveld Fund • Jessie Lang and Signy Hansen Family Fund • Art and Grace McConkey Family Fund • Merlene Scholarship Fund • Pay It Forward Bursary Fund • Polar Bear Fund * • Puchniak Family Fund • Carol and Michael Rogerson Family Fund • Wilma A Sotas December 6 Fund: To Remember and Act on Violence Against Women and Girls • Ebenezer Ross and Sarah (Mollard) Sutherland Family Fund • Mark and Melanie Tooley Family Fund

BEQUESTS

These funds have been established through thoughtful planned gifts made in a donor’s Will.

• Morley Blankstein Memorial Fund • Gretta Merle Boyd Memorial Fund • Marion Corbett Fund • Margaret Dingle Memorial Fund • Ken and Peggy French Fund • Jean Greenham Memorial Fund • Mary Greening Memorial Fund • Hilda Kerkham Memorial Fund * • Helen Miller Memorial Fund • Madeline Waddell Memorial Fund

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MEMORIAL AND TRIBUTE FUNDS

These funds honour and remember special people and milestones.

• Elmwood High School Legacy Fund – In memory of Bill Petrie • Cole Hamblin Memorial Fund • Jack Johnson Memorial Football Scholarship Fund • Sydney J. Parsons Fund • In Memory of Desmond and Lavonne Pitts Fund • Braden Purchase Memorial Fund • Abigail Stewart-Pearse Memorial Fund • Rick Symonds Pride in Elmwood Award Fund GROUP LEGACY FUNDS

Groups of donors and organizations have come together to establish these funds.

• CanU Lead Awards Scholarship Fund * • École River Heights School Scholarship Fund * Profiled in this issue

G e n e ro u s Donors

Artist honours polar bears with new fund

Look for the

bear

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innipeg artist Kal Barteski is “completely obsessed” with polar bears, and she’s started a fund to help them.

The Polar Bear Fund, held at The Winnipeg Foundation, supports innovative, non-invasive polar bear research and projects that honour bears – especially mother bears – and their place in the Arctic ecosystem.

Manitoba has one of the largest denning areas for polar bears in the world, Ms. Barteski explains.

“We are kind of an epicentre for mother bears. It is our responsibility to make sure they are being treated with respect and care.”

Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen.

According to Ms. Barteski, mother bears are the ones that are usually equipped with radio collars. “[Researchers] essentially run them down with a helicopter or drop into their dens and surprise them, tranquilize them in front of their kids (cubs), do a bit of an assessment, put a collar on that’s too tight and makes life for them really a lot harder.”

This approach is contrary to what should happen, she says.

“You would think if you wanted the population to flourish you’d treat the moms with cubs – the moms with the future generations – with the utmost care and respect.”

The Polar Bear Fund is a DonorAdvised Fund, meaning Ms. Barteski will work with The Foundation’s Grants Team to decide which projects receive financial support. The fund is structured so that 40 per cent of gifts are flow-through available for immediate grant-making, and 60 per cent are endowed to create permanent support.

“The Donor-Advised Fund was important to me because things are always changing and it was important to be able to look at the projects that were happening each year… instead of being one of those large organizations that works more in marketing.”

She’s looking to support innovative and creative projects and would like to

tap into the knowledge and experience of those who live amongst bears, especially in Churchill.

“I think when we allow only one sort of genre of thought we can’t come up with that many new ideas but when we can incorporate people that are not just scientists, people that are not just conservation [staff]… the ideas will be bigger and better and hopefully more successful for our bears.”

Keeping the fund Manitoba-based, and having it managed by The Foundation, was important to Ms. Barteski.

“This is where polar bears live, this is where we can make a huge difference, this is where we have to care about them.”

Setting up the fund was easy and took less than a week. “[Foundation staff] were so helpful in answering my questions and guiding me through the process. I am an artist so there are a lot of things I had never heard of and didn’t take into consideration.”

Ms. Barteski – who is world-renowned for her illustrated typography work – first became interested in bears while studying Advertising Art at Red River College.

One of her assignments was to go to the Assiniboine Park Zoo and sketch animals.

She was “really taken” with long-time zoo resident Debby the polar bear, who passed away in 2008.

“I kind of just developed a bit of a one sided relationship with her.”

Ms. Barteski’s love for polar bears was solidified after Animal Planet took her up to Churchill a few years ago as part of its TV series Wild Obsession.

“I was just completely set on fire, I think that might be the only way to describe it. I was interested in polar bears before that trip, but I was just completely obsessed after.”

She’s been to Churchill seven times now, and is heading back this summer.

Ms. Barteski’s illustrated typography work is extremely popular – Google #kbscript to see – and she’s working hard to introduce some of those fans to her work with polar bears.

“I kind of have two sides and my goal artistically is to eventually find a way to get them to meet in the middle.”

Ms. Barteski is developing the Polar Bear Fund in a number of ways. Proceeds from the sale of some of her artwork will go towards supporting the fund, and she is planning a multi-artist benefit show in October which will include artists, photographers, spoken word poets and more.

Despite the sometimes less-thanpositive outlook for polar bears, Ms. Barteski is confident they’ll be around for generations.

“The endowment fund, the permanence, appealed to me because I am just going to believe 100 per cent that polar bears will be around for a long time.”

For more information on Kal Barteski and the Polar Bear Fund, go to kalbarteski.com.

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To hear an interview with Kal Barteski, head to rivercity360.org.

Endowment funds at The Foundation Interested in creating your own fund?

The Polar Bear Fund is Donor-Advised, meaning you get to recommend the charities that receive grants from your fund.

There are a range of different fund options for you to choose from, depending on what you’re interested in and how involved you want to be.

Please contact us for details!

G e n e ro u s Donors

Hilda Kerkham with nephew Glenn Duncan.

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Creating a safe place for Multigenerational connection continues family’s philanthropic ambitions

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everyone

he relationship between Jayden Duncan-Nassie and his GreatGreat-Aunt Hilda Kerkham was

special.

According to 10-year-old Jayden, Auntie Hilda – who was 92 years his senior – was always happy to see him and made time for him no matter what.

“Her face would just light up, her frown would literally just bend the other direction,” Jayden says. “It made me feel pretty special to have someone care about me that much.”

That’s why Jayden felt it was important to give a eulogy at Mrs. Kerkham’s funeral last June, when he was just nine-years-old.

“I wanted to tell the world what she’d done [so she could be] a role model for people in the future,” he says.

He shared some of his favourite memories.

“When I was little, Auntie Hilda was stronger than me. She let me sit on her walker seat, then she pushed me for a ride to the elevator… When Auntie Hilda was almost 100-years-old and I was stronger than she was, I often pushed her wheelchair.”

Mrs. Kerkham was sharp until the end.

A month before she passed away at the age of 101, she beat her nephew Glenn Duncan (Jayden’s grandfather) in a game of Scrabble. The word that put her over the top was “jinx.”

“I knew darn well I should not let her get close to those triple [word scores] because she always seemed to have a J or a Z up her sleeve. And sure enough she put that down and said, ‘Take that!’”

Jayden Duncan-Nassie, with grandfather Glenn Duncan, shows off a red cardinal statue he received from his Great-Great-Aunt Hilda.

Mrs. Kerkham was born in 1913 in Markham, ON and moved to Winnipeg as a young girl. She grew up on Banning Street in the West End and was a lifelong member of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church. She spent her summers at Lake Brereton and Lake of the Woods.

Mrs. Kerkham first worked with the Manitoba Cancer Relief and Research Institute. When the Manitoba Division of the Canadian Cancer Society was formed in 1952, she became Education Officer, a position she held until retirement.

“She always spoke very highly of her work – she really enjoyed it,” Mr. Duncan says. “In her job she travelled extensively in rural Manitoba, driving by herself to make presentations in various communities, giving out information about the dangers of smoking and cancerrelated issues.”

She was a Life Member of the Manitoba Provincial Council of Women, and was particularly proud to have been a founding member of the Health Committee established to lobby for the banning of smoking in public places.

Mrs. Kerkham loved being active. She was an avid golfer and was honoured with a Life Membership at the Winnipeg Canoe Club. She also was a member of the Rossmere Golf and Country Club.

Mrs. Kerkham also enjoyed reading, painting and knitting.

She knit 100s of hats and other items for charity, continuing to do so even after her 100th birthday.

She was predeceased by her beloved husband Algernon “Kerk” Kerkham.

According to Mr. Duncan, Hilda Kerkham was graceful and dignified until the very end.

“She had a lot of things against her laterally in terms of difficulty breathing, difficulty getting around, but through it all… she never had an unkind word to say,” Mr. Duncan says. “She was always bright and cheerful when you came to visit. She was very patient and easy going at the end.”

In her Will, Mrs. Kerkham included a bequest to The Winnipeg Foundation. She designated her gift to support the Winnipeg Humane Society and Camperships.

“Hilda was extremely conscious of animals in distress,” says Mr. Duncan, who was his Aunt’s Executor. “I suspect some of her feelings around children’s camps were the same – that children can’t control their own lives. And so her bequest would help give them a place and a sense of power and belonging.”

Mr. Duncan said his aunt thoroughly researched what to do with her money, and would have been confident in her decision to support her community through The Winnipeg Foundation.

“Hilda was very astute and she was a member of investment clubs. She would know and have opinions about how the money was distributed and what should happen, so The Winnipeg Foundation was an option that she trusted.”

Philanthropy is important to the family, and Mr. Duncan is ensuring his grandson understands why.

“It’s modeling a certain philosophy for the children. This philosophy is that you should reach out beyond yourself and your own immediate needs and look towards the larger community and how you can help the community.”

Jayden Duncan-Nassie presented his Auntie Hilda’s gift to The Foundation.

“The world isn’t a safe place until everyone has a safe place to be in,” Jayden says. “People in the world need help, not everyone in the world is fortunate to have the life my family has.”

Endowment funds at The Foundation

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Jayden Duncan-Nassie presents his Auntie Hilda’s gift to The Foundation.

Interested in creating your own fund?

Hilda Kerkham created a Donor-Designated Fund.

This type of fund allows your chosen charitable organizations to receive your support forever. Mrs. Kerkham chose to support the Winnipeg Humane Society and Manitoba Camping Association’s Sunshine Fund.

There are a range of different fund options for you to choose from, depending on what you’re interested in and how involved you want to be. Please contact us for details!

G e n e ro u s Donors

Your Planned

Giving Team

You live your life with intention and focus. You’re passionate about your community and the people who call it home. You have a vision for the future.

What will your legacy be?

When you make a legacy gift to the community through The Winnipeg Foundation, you make a difference in

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a way that’s meaningful to you and reflects the values you cherish For Good. Forever. Plus, you can join other likeminded individuals as a member of The Foundation’s Legacy Circle.

Everyday philanthropists have been building legacies at The Winnipeg Foundation and leaving their footprints

on our community for 95 years.

Whether you’re considering a legacy gift in your estate plans or already have plans in place, thank you.

The Foundation’s Planned Giving Team is here to answer your questions.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Leslie E. Weir

Pat. Lilley

Kathryne Cardwell

M.A., CFRE, ACFRE

CFRE

BA, CFRE

Director of Family Philanthropy 204.944.9474 ext. 246 lweir@wpgfdn.org

Legacy Circle Convenor 204.944.9474 ext. 228 plilley@wpgfdn.org

Gift Planning Associate 204.944.9474 ext. 258 kcardwell@wpgfdn.org

Bequest 101 Where there’s a Will, there’s a way!

Victoria Anderson Legacy Services Coordinator 204.944.9474 ext. 255 vanderson@wpgfdn.org

Join us for a session at our office: 1350-One Lombard Place (Richardson Building, 13th floor)

Please join us for a free, interactive information session. Learn how easy it is to create a meaningful legacy with a gift in your Will, plus meet other likeminded people.

Wednesday, May 18: 5:30 p.m.

Thursday, May 26: 2 p.m.

Thursday, June 2: 2 p.m.

For 95 years, hundreds of people from all walks of life have entrusted The Foundation with legacies that today support a variety of important charitable causes. Gifts of all sizes make a difference!

Transit: Within one block of major transit stops

Parking: Several lots and parkades close by RSVP: Victoria Anderson, Legacy Services Coordinator, 204.944.9474 ext. 255 or email: vanderson@wpgfdn.org Advance registration required

Supporting people, places and pets

Jud Snell (left) with life-long friend Bud Irving.

The legacy of Jud Snell

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eorge ‘Jud’ Snell loved people, animals and nature.

Mr. Snell surrounded himself with the outdoors and served on the Fort Whyte Board of Trustees.

“He loved just being outside. He loved his boat. He loved to fish. And he just loved to chop wood,” says Harold ‘Bud’ Irving, Jud’s devoted friend for more than 70 years.

Born in Minneapolis, MN in 1917, Mr. Snell moved to Winnipeg in 1928.

The Snell family lived on the first floor of the Dorchester Apartments, which is where Jud first met Bud, whose family lived on the third.

Mr. Snell graduated from Kelvin High School in 1934 and received a BA from the University of Manitoba in 1940. He enlisted in the R.C.A.F. on Jan. 2, 1942 and he was a member of the R.C.A.F. Ottawa Flyers in ’42 when they won the Allen Cup. He was posted to the R.A.F. in England as a Pilot Officer and was discharged in 1945 as a Flight Lieutenant.

Mr. Snell worked as a coal salesman before becoming a stockbroker with Richardson Securities in 1962 until his retirement in 1982.

He married Marilyn Loretta Jordan in 1958. The Snells and Irvings were great friends.

“We spent as much time over at his place as we did at home,” Mr. Irving says.

Jud and Marilyn purchased a large property on the south side of Winnipeg, which allowed them to be close to nature and gave their dogs plenty of room to roam.

“The Snells had this cottage on Kilkenny Drive. It was just a summer cottage and he and Marilyn decided that they would like to live there, so they did all kinds of renovations.”

Marilyn passed away suddenly in 1984; Mr. Snell never remarried.

In his Will, Mr. Snell left gifts for the Fort Whyte Foundation, the Winnipeg Humane Society, and a Community Building Fund at The Winnipeg Foundation. His parents, George S. and Katherine Snell, were also Winnipeg Foundation supporters.

“He believed in the things that The Foundation was set up for and he knew that when he left his money to The Foundation it would be treated similar to what his mother and dad wanted to have done,” says Mr. Irving, who was Executor of Mr. Snell’s estate.

According to Mr. Irving, Jud would have known gifts to a Community Building Fund allow The Foundation to respond to the community’s most pressing needs.

“Sometimes you give it to a particular purpose and sometimes you leave it up to The Foundation to do what they do naturally.”

Jud (left) with parents Katherine and George T. Snell in 1942.

Planning now to give later

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Leave a mark on our community and achieve your philanthropic goals with a gift in your Will.

Gifts can include bequests, insurance policies, or retirement assets like RRSPs and TFSAs. Contact The Foundation to find out how you can create your legacy.

What’s a Community Building Fund?

Our most common and flexible type of fund, Community Building funds allow The Foundation to respond to our community’s changing needs by determining which charitable organizations will receive grants.

G e n e ro u s Donors

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Thriving

in the face of adversity

Scholarship helps recipient flourish

Kayla Sittler, recipient of the Ilene Meder Scholarship, now works at Urban Circle Training Centre.

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ayla Sittler had already begun to turn her life around after the birth of her daughter.

Support from a scholarship allowed her to complete her transformation.

“Before I had my daughter it was really, really bad. I was into drugs and drinking lots,” she says. “Once I had my first daughter I stopped everything and I stayed home with her for two years.”

When daughter Keyairah was two-years-old, Ms. Sittler, who was 23-years-old at the time, went to Tec Voc High School to finish her Grade 12. She was at least five years older than most of her classmates.

“It was so difficult to be in a class with 18-year-olds because they… don’t have a kid to take care of after school.”

While attending Tec Voc, Ms. Sittler received the Ilene Meder Scholarship (see sidebar for more). This scholarship

is designed to support Winnipeg high school students who demonstrate financial need and would otherwise not likely be able to continue their studies.

“It was good because I wanted to go to school for a while but I didn’t have the money.”

After graduation, Ms. Sittler enrolled in Civil Engineering at Red River College. But attending college while raising Keyairah on her own was difficult.

“It was very hard because my daughter was only three years old and I had five courses every day, with homework every day.”

Ms. Sittler completed the first year of the Red River program and then took some time off. She eventually enrolled at CDI College in the Office Assistant program.

“I found out I was pregnant the first month I started, but I did finish the whole program. I had my baby five days after grad, so it just worked out.”

Ms. Sittler took about year off after the birth of her second daughter Kaitee, and then started to look for work.

Finding employment was difficult at first, but she eventually found a term position at Urban Circle Training Centre.

That term position has since become permanent; she’s been at Urban Circle for a year and is now off social assistance.

“It was hard at first… but now I’m able to have money left over after I’m done paying everything off,” she says.

“Before it was like my bills were getting higher and I didn’t know how to save money; it’s getting better.”

Ms. Sittler, who is 27, is doing all she can to ensure her daughters are given every opportunity, including opening an RESP for them.

“It was hard for me to be able to even think of going to college, because I had no money to pay for my schooling.

Growing up we didn’t have any money.

I want my kids to go to college and be happy they don’t have to take out student loans.”

Working at Urban Circle, which provides culturally appropriate education and training to Indigenous People in Winnipeg, has helped Ms. Sittler learn about her Metis heritage.

“I went medicine picking with one of the classes because I didn’t have any experience with it, I didn’t know which medicines to pick. We go to sweat lodges with all the staff and we have staff sharing circles once a month.”

She’s passing this knowledge onto her children and family.

“We smudge in the mornings. Or if we’re having a bad day or negative energy... I just smudge and then the kids are calm after that.”

Ms. Sittler’s also giving back to the community. Last summer she spent her two weeks of vacation volunteering at Red River College’s H.A.W.K. camp, which exposes youth to Red River’s programming while building self-esteem, selfidentity and cultural knowledge.

“We made drums, we did lots of medicine picking, the kids were really good,” she says. “I feel good when I do it. I met a lot of great people through that camp.”

“Growing up we didn’t have any money. I want my kids to go to college and be happy they don’t have to take out student loans.”

The Ilene Meder Scholarship This scholarship is designed to provide “substantial” support so students can pursue post-secondary training.

Since the scholarship started in 2010, 17 students have received almost $214,000 in support.

Ms. Meder’s Fund has also supported The Foundation’s You Can Do It Awards, which allow students in selected inner city schools to earn scholarships to put towards their post-secondary education. Ms. Meder’s Fund has contributed almost $90,000 in support for these awards.

What’s a Scholarship Fund?

Scholarship Funds provide annual gifts to support local students with their studies.

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Scholarship Funds can provide: • Scholarships - based on academic achievement or other merit.

• Bursaries - based on financial need.

• Prizes - generally based on a specific accomplishment, such as highest standing in a single course.

• Fellowships - provided at the graduate level in support of advanced studies and research.

About Ilene Meder Ilene Meder was a school teacher with Winnipeg School Division #1.

She taught at Faraday, William Whyte, Strathcona and Greenway schools. Both Ms. Meder and her sister Marjorie completed their B.A. and B.Ed. Degrees at the University of Manitoba.

Ms. Meder loved sports, music, crafts, reading and travelling.

She was very active in her church and her faith was the most important part of her life.

G e n e ro u s Donors

CanU kids and university students bond during the Art Academy; mentorship is a key component CanU.

Innovative mentoring program helps kids see potential

CanU 14

be your best?

C

Kids learn valuable life skills, such as how to follow recipes and what it means to eat healthy, during the Nutrition Academy.

anU is helping kids learn about themselves. “[I’ve learned] to make new friends and be who you are,” says 11-yearold Issah Julian, a Grade 6 student from Victoria Albert School who participates in CanU. “[I’ve learned] there are other different kinds of people just like you and that helps you be yourself.”

CanU is an after-school program connecting kids in Grades 5 to 8 to student and adult mentors at the University of Manitoba. It connects the young people to possibility and opportunity. And, most importantly, it connects them to hope.

“If a person has hope for the future they will be able to develop the strategies to reach their goals,” says Roger Berrington, Executive Director and Co-Founder of CanU. “Hope gives resiliency and perseverance – necessary when an obstacle gets in the way of their goal.”

The CanU kids, who might not otherwise have the chance to attend university, are picked up from their elementary and

middle schools each week and bused to the University. Once there, they meet up with their mentors, share a healthy meal, and start to learn and grow.

During the course of the 14-week school year program, students explore different faculties before picking their Academy major – including Art, Jazz, Science, Musical Theatre or Superhero.

Launched in 2010 with just 18 CanU students and 40 university mentors, CanU now engages 400 students and more than 500 university volunteers. It operates four days a week during the school year, with programs running at the Fort Garry and Bannatyne campuses, as well as in the summer.

This impressive growth has been possible thanks to partnerships, sponsorships and plenty of grants – Mr. Berrington says he personally wrote 78 grant applications in the first five years. To ensure the program’s long-term sustainability, CanU recently established an Agency Fund at The Winnipeg Foundation.

“We’ve got some amazing partners that help fund our programs but we know we need a sustainable future and the Agency Fund is a big part of that,” Mr. Berrington says.

CanU is also in the midst of developing a Scholarship Fund. Students can apply for a $1,000 scholarship each year they attend CanU, for a total of up to $4,000 to put towards their education at the University of Manitoba.

“One of the things we’ve had the dream of doing is helping kids find the resources to one day study here. We’ve had a very generous person – and with The Foundation’s help of matching some gifts in a five year period – we’re hoping to create a pool of about $500,000 to invest in the future of the kids.”

This is the first year students can apply for scholarships and between 30 and 40 will be available; Mr. Berrington hopes to eventually grow this to 100 scholarships per year.

Part of CanU’s success stems from the strong relationships the program fosters. “[The CanU kids] get to develop relationships with their peers but they also get to develop relationships with university students and adults in different ways,” explains Michelle Honeyford, an Assistant Professor with the University, who coordinates the CanU program for the Faculty of Education. “Somebody’s looking out for them, somebody’s having that conversation with them, somebody’s asking about their day, somebody’s really doing their best to engage them in whatever it is they’re doing. That’s a very positive place for kids to really shine and be themselves.”

Likewise, getting to know the kids is the best part for student mentors.

“I personally love coming to CanU, it’s a good break from school,” says 20-year-old Brooke Cochrane who has been volunteering with CanU for three years.

CanU is a great learning opportunity for university students as it allows them to develop much of the program, including designing and teaching the Academies, booking the facilities, managing a small budget, and more.

“We want people to have a meaningful leadership CanU kids and university students hard at work on their art.

Every CanU participant gets a healthy meal before the Academies begin; CanU kids and university students dine together, which helps strengthen relationships.

experience. If we just hired them and told them what to do they’re not having the experience of trying to figure something out,” Mr. Berrington explains.

The experience is so significant, Cara Scott returned to U of M after graduating to volunteer as an instructor for the Nutrition Academy.

“I don’t have much experience with youth and I’ve heard so many good things about this program. I was never a volunteer with it either so I came in,” Ms. Scott says.

CanU is already the largest student group on campus, Mr. Berrington says, and it’s highly respected.

“CanU is a recognized and kind of a prestigious volunteer opportunity. What we’re getting feedback is, when you have CanU on your resume, that’s a very good thing.”

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In addition to starting Agency and Scholarship funds at The Foundation, CanU has received more than $125,000 in grant support from The Foundation since 2012.

To hear interviews with Roger Berrington and CanU participants, head to rivercity360.org.

What’s an Agency Fund?

An Agency Fund provides an annual source of income to be used at the discretion of the charitable organization that established it.

Learn about Agency Funds on page 16.

Learn about Scholarship Funds on pages 12 and 13.

G e n e ro u s Donors

Active Funds Agency

A

n Agency Fund is created when a local charity establishes its own permanent endowment at The Winnipeg Foundation. The annual income generated is used at the charitable agency’s discretion. An agency endowment is typically part of a

longer term strategy aimed at providing sustainable core funding.

There are almost 200 agencies with funds at The Winnipeg Foundation.

The most active funds are those that receive the greatest number of gifts in any given year.

The most revenue generated is determined by the average market value of the fund.

For more go to: wpgfdn.org/AgencyFunds

Number of gifts received

Value of gifts received

Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre Endowment Fund, honouring Artistic Director Steven Schipper

267

$237,833

Specialized Services for Children and Youth Endowment Fund

223

$134,714

Manitoba P.E.O. Foundation Fund

86

$10,712

Friends of Badminton Manitoba Fund

51

$8,540

Most active Agency Funds in 2015

16

LEAF Manitoba WISE: Working in Support of Equality Fund

51

$8,113

Esther House Endowment Fund

46

$3,950

Winnipeg Police Service Endowment Fund

40

$33,608

Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre Endowment Fund

37

$14,625

ACL Winnipeg Endowment Fund

36

$780

Villa Rosa Endowment Fund

32

$30,151

Pulford Community Living Services Endowment Fund

30

$21,686

Seven Oaks Education Funds

29

$23,864

Curling for Life Endowment Fund

27

$275,582

Manitoba Chapter Ninety Nines Fund

26

$19,220

Cerebral Palsy Association of Manitoba Research Fund

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$26,306

Agency Funds with the most revenue generated for 2016

Amount to spend

Royal Winnipeg Ballet Endowment Funds

$988,698

Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre Endowment Fund, honouring Artistic Director Steven Schipper

$702,770

Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra Endowment Fund

$271,857

Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Fund

$154,990

Fort Whyte Foundation Trust Funds

$148,542

Continuity Care Endowment Fund

$102,572

Pine Ridge Wildlife Funds

$95,955

The DuVal Foundation Funds

$82,741

Forks Foundation Endowment Fund

$70,681

Balmoral Hall Endowment Funds

$64,153

Manitoba Chamber Orchestra Endowment Fund

$61,973

Manitoba Paraplegia Foundation Inc. Fund

$57,125

Manitoba Museum Foundation Funds

$56,486

Winnipeg Folk Festival Funds

$47,023

Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art Endowment Fund

$43,666

Empowering Communty Fast Pitch 2016 participants during the Semi-Final event.

A COMMUNITY COMPETITION WHERE EVERYONE WINS Fast Pitch connects charitable and business sectors, builds capacity Can you make a difference in three minutes?

Through Fast Pitch, leaders from local charitable organizations learned how to better present their organization’s story: succinctly and powerfully. The coaching process also helped build valuable relationships with members of Winnipeg’s business community. There were 30 coaches, hailing from legal, financial, marketing and business sectors.

“I’d never interact with these coaches in my day-to-day work. It’s great to see people that want to use their skills in a way that helps us advance our agencies. That’s really

Leaders from 17 local charities can, thanks to The Winnipeg

important and there’s not really a venue to do that anywhere

Foundation’s Fast Pitch initiative.

else,” says Jamil Mahmood, Executive Director of the Spence

Skilled volunteers from the business sector teamed up with

Neighbourhood Association and a Fast Pitch presenter.

charitable community leaders to develop three-minute

During the three-month program period, Fast Pitch

Dragons’ Den-style fast pitches. Up for grabs were grants

participants engaged in a variety of activities including

worth more than $20,000.

professional development opportunities, and one-on-one and

“It was such an amazing experience to be part of this. In three

group coaching sessions.

minutes, you can get a lot in, but it also goes by really quickly,”

Fast Pitch culminated in a Final Showcase April 7 at The Met.

says Matt Erhard, Fast Pitch presenter and Kidsport Canada’s

Winners were determined by a panel of judges – all well-

Manitoba/Winnipeg Chapter Board Chair.

known Winnipeggers who brought a range of professional

Fast Pitch aims to support and raise awareness of Winnipeg’s charitable sector.

“You don’t hear of [some of these charitable organizations] that often, but they’re doing wonderful work for our

expertise to the judging table: Ace Burpee, Lisa Meeches and Obby Khan. Audience members also helped decide the People’s Choice winner using a text-to-vote feature.

The event was a great fit for The Foundation in a number of ways.

community,” says Alexis Kanu, Executive Director of Lake

“The Foundation’s vision is ‘a Winnipeg where community life

Winnipeg Foundation and a Fast Pitch presenter. “It was

flourishes for all.’ Fast Pitch is one of the ways we’re working

great to connect, and I know the presenters really formed a

to fulfill this vision, and to build our philanthropic community,”

community. We were all cheering each other on, even though

says Foundation CEO Richard Frost.

we are in competition with each other.”

For more info, head to fastpitchwinnipeg.org where you’ll find all the details and a highlights video.

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Empowering Communty

SHARING STORIES TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE The Winnipeg Foundation’s Community News Commons (cncwpg.org) is more than a platform for citizen journalists to share stories that matter to them; it’s also creating a more informed and engaged community and stronger, healthier neighbourhoods.

Here’s a sampling of some recent stories on CNC. To read the full-length versions of each, head to communitynewscommons.org/working-together-spring-2016

A different kind of classroom

By Carolyn Townend On a fall morning at Mikisew School in Cross Lake, MB, students are in their classrooms. All except for those in Kerry Muswagon’s Cultural Awareness class.

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Instead, these students are outside, practicing archery skills, cooking up campfire tea, getting a lesson on plucking a goose.

Mr. Muswagon’s knowledge was passed to him from his father. Today, Mr. Muswagon teaches moose hunting and how to make fry bread and moose stew.

The class sliced up potatoes, onions and moose meat, skills that are about more than putting nutritious food on the table.

“One of the things I like about going out in the bush is it’s peaceful,” Mr. Muswagon says.

Kerry Muswagon teaches students of how to prepare a delicious moose stew.

Changing the world one toque at a time

Out of grief comes hope

Tuning In to a better life

by Agou Anyieth Kur

By Heather Emberley

By Cameron Lozinski

For Rebecca Deng and her friends in the Emanuel Mission Women’s Group, the ongoing civil war in South Sudan is painful.

Tune In offers free music programming at the West End Cultural Centre for youth living in the Spence Neighbourhood community.

When I was in Grade 8, our teacher asked us to get involved in our community. So, we started knitting toques which our teacher donated to homeless people.

In Grade 9, I knit more toques to raise funds for a Habitat for Humanity Global Village Build Trip to El Salvador, and for subsequent Habitat trips to Portugal and Indonesia, where we helped people build homes.

Three years and hundreds of toques later, my goal is to set up a foundation focused on volunteering, citizenship and community relations, so proceeds from my toque sales can make a difference in people’s lives.

Some of the toques Cameron has knit.

When war started, Ms. Deng was a child, separated from her family as she fled to Ethiopia – one of the ‘lost boys and girls of Sudan’.

Many have fled to Winnipeg, going to school, working, raising families, and worshipping at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church.

All the while, raising funds for Sudanese relief and creating a centre for women’s empowerment in Bor, South Sudan.

The Women’s Resource Centre in Bor will focus on literacy and skills training, early child development and peace education.

Many ‘lost girls and boys of Sudan’ make their way through refugee camps like this one in Kenya.

“It’s one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Winnipeg,” says Jack Jonasson, General Manager of the WECC. “We are surrounded by gang activity and drug use.”

Mr. Jonasson says Tune In provides a safe place where kids can escape street life and enter a world of music, creativity and acceptance.

“Their lives are not easy,” says Kerri Stephens, Tune In Co-ordinator. “I’ve heard of kids who said to gang recruiters, ‘I can’t join because I have to do my music.’”

A Tune In participant.

Nolan Bicknell and Robert Zirk co-host RC360, heard Sundays at 8:15 a.m. on CJNU 93.7FM or online at cjnu.ca.

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND? Community News Commons wants you to “Express Yourself.”

Starting May 2016, a CNC video booth will be popping up in various locations across Manitoba, inviting you to share ideas or respond on camera

LEND US YOUR EAR River City 360 brings you “views and news from around Winnipeg” on CJNU 93.7FM every Sunday, starting at 8:15 a.m.

RC360 presents the latest events and happenings in Winnipeg, with a focus on the charitable sector and philanthropy, through interesting interviews, engaging discussion and weekly features.

Hosted by The Winnipeg Foundation’s Nolan Bicknell and Robert Zirk, River City 360 delivers a variety of stories and up to date features that matter to listeners.

If you’ve missed any episodes or want to listen again, visit rivercity360.org.

Some recent highlights:

to questions on a number of different community topics.

Video posts will be uploaded to CNC’s website (cncwpg.org) giving all citizens the opportunity to be a part of our community’s dialogue on meaningful issues.

In collaboration with Alliance Francaise du Manitoba, CNC’s “Express Yourself” video booth is a portal that invites commentary in both of Canada’s official languages, English and French.

Whether you want to comment on a community or ‘hot button’ issue, tell a story or recite a poem, you can have your say. Watch for the pop up video booth coming soon to a neighbourhood near you!

Check cncwpg.org to find out where CNC’s

Season 2 Episode 11 – Mar. 20, 2016: Coverage of the Child Nutrition

“Express Yourself” video booth is located at any

Council of Manitoba’s annual Stone Soup fundraiser.

given time or email CNC Convener Noah Erenberg

Season 2 Episode 8 – Feb. 28, 2016: Jen Zoratti of the Winnipeg Free

at nerenberg@cncwpg.org.

Press discusses modern journalism and the move from print to digital.

Season 2 Episode 6 – Feb. 14, 2016: Avnish Mehta of Edmontonbased Stand and Command shares his insights on the recent Fast Pitch workshops and how to communicate more effectively.

Season 2 Episode 5 – Feb. 7, 2016: Coverage of a panel discussion that challenges Winnipeggers to imagine Portage and Main as a more pedestrian-friendly intersection.

Season 2 Episode 4 – Jan. 31, 2016: Karen Koroma of Sierra Leone Refugee Resettlement welcomes newcomer families and provides educational opportunities for children.

Season 2 Episode 3 – Jan. 24, 2016: To commemorate the centennial of Manitoba women receiving the vote, RC360 tours the Manitoba Museum’s “Nice Women Don’t Want the Vote” exhibit.

Season 2 Episode 2 – Jan. 17, 2016: Returning to Spirit’s reconciliation workshops promote healing and collaboration in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.

Empowering Communty

The Express Yourself video booth will travel to various neighbourhoods in the city and across the province.

19

A sampling of products Syrian refugees will receive through Welcome Place’s Bed-in-a-Bag program.

Empowering Communty Above: Welcome Place’s Rita Chahal addresses a full house during the March 17 Welcome Fund announcement.

Right: Foundation CEO Richard Frost hosted the event, at which Minister John McCallum (centre) and Mayor Brian Bowman spoke.

SUPPORT FOR SYRIANS National partners develop Welcome Fund

transitional housing complex, the generous support means ready access to multilingual, knowledgeable and culturally competent staff,” says Erin Anderson, Director of Programming for IRCOM. “It means being able to walk

Syrian refugees and other newcomers to Winnipeg will

down the hall from their new apartment, in an entirely new

benefit from a $500,000 contribution from the Welcome

country, and receive meaningful wrap-around settlement

Fund for Syrian Refugees (Welcome Fund), an initiative

supports from a familiar face in their first language.”

of Community Foundations of Canada (CFC). The funds are

“We are extremely pleased to receive support to formally

being entrusted to The Winnipeg Foundation.

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“For the 48 refugee families that will live at IRCOM’s newest

launch our Bed-in-a-Bag program,” says Rita Chahal,

The Foundation will distribute the funds to local settlement

Executive Director of Welcome Place. “This program meets

organizations, beginning with two announced at an event

such a basic, yet profound need for people to feel secure,

at Welcome Place on March 17: Immigrant and Refugee

and gives them a sense of belonging when they have had to

Community Organization of Manitoba (IRCOM), and

leave everything behind.”

Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council (MIIC), also known

Honourable John McCallum, Minister of Immigration,

as Welcome Place.

Refugees and Citizenship, Ian Bird, CEO of Community

The Welcome Fund was seeded by Manulife, and quickly

Foundations of Canada and Mayor Brian Bowman were all

augmented by CN’s historic $5 million donation, as well as by

on hand for the March 17 announcement.

generous support from GM and community organizations.

The Welcome Fund supports the successful settlement of Syrian families and helps them transition into suitable permanent housing. More than 900 refugees from Syria have arrived in Winnipeg in recent months.

Welcome Place will receive $150,000 to provide direct rent support to families and to provide essential household items to the refugees as they transition out of Welcome Place into permanent housing. Read more about how Welcome Place is helping refugees on pages 24 and 25.

Another $75,000 is going to IRCOM to provide complementary supports to families living in its transitional housing facilities.

Other local organizations will receive the remaining funds, to be determined by The Winnipeg Foundation in the coming weeks.

Welcome to Winnipeg Fund The Winnipeg Foundation has started its own fund to support Syrian refugees and newcomers in our community. The Welcome to Winnipeg Fund will augment The Foundation’s current grantmaking activities that already support charitable organizations helping settle newcomers. Gifts to this fund are not permanently endowed; they will flow directly to identified projects.

To learn more or to make a gift to the fund, go to: wpgfdn.org/WelcomeToWinnipegFund

Incredible IMPACT

It’s because of our donors’ generosity The Foundation can make hundreds of grants each year. These grants help local charities tackle important issues, take on meaningful projects and change our community for the better. They help build “a Winnipeg where community life flourishes for all.”

In the following pages we share some stories of these meaningful grants. We hope you’re as inspired as we are.

Great grants

I

n January The Foundation’s Grants Committee approved almost $1.69 million to support 105 projects.

Here’s just a sampling of the dozens of projects.

Green Action Centre

$20,000

This grant helps provide resource materials, consultation and hands-on assistance for apartments and condos in Winnipeg to start composting, increase the amount of organics diverted from the landfill, and promote volunteer work.

Support for this grant came from the hundreds of Community Building funds held at The Foundation, as well as a number of Field of Interest Funds: the Edgar and Kathleen Russenholt Memorial Fund, the Environment Community Fund, the Ron and Lesley Swaine Fund, the Ian. C. McGonigal Fund, and the Barbara H. (Tarr) Kendel Fund.

West Broadway Development Corporation

$23,656

This grant supports the ‘Towards Independence’ project that will maintain the current programming capacity of the Good Food Club, which helps people eat healthier, gain new food skills and build community. It will also help explore options for transitioning the program into independence.

Support for this grant came from the Moffat Family Fund, a Donor-Advised Fund.

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Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (MAWA)

$15,000

This grant will facilitate MAWA to co-produce Desiring Change: Contemporary Feminist Art in Canada, the first book about contemporary feminist visual art in Canada. The book commemorates MAWA’s 30th anniversary. Support for this grant came from the hundreds of Community Building funds held at The Foundation, as well as from the Carol Joan Manning Fund, which is a Field of Interest Fund.

Incredible Impact

CEDA Pathways student advisory council members plan a gathering for their fellow students.

CEDA Pathways creates confident, competent and compassionate kids

Helping kids carve

their own Paths 22

C

ody Prescott was shy and reserved, but now the Grade 12 student performs Shakespeare.

“When I was in Grade 9, I was very awkward,” he says. “I used to wear my hoodie all the time… and never really talk to anyone.”

At his parents’ urging, the Children of the Earth High School student got involved with the Community Education Development Association (CEDA) Pathways to Education program. It was here that he was first introduced to Shakespeare.

CEDA Pathways helps youth from lowincome communities graduate from high school by providing mentorship, tutoring and homework help, financial assistance, counselling, summer school and healthy food. This year, more than 300 students from Grades 7 to 12 are involved with the program.

“During the course of mentoring they played a lot of games which I had a lot of fun with and I was slowly opening up to that,” Mr. Prescott says, “But the thing that really did change me was called Shakespeare in the City.”

Shakespeare in the City is a program run by theatre company Shakespeare in the Ruins. It brings theatre to CEDA Pathways participants.

“I was embarrassed and unsure but I just tried it anyway. And then [the drama instructor] said something like, ‘You shouldn’t mind about being embarrassed because everyone else is embarrassing themselves too.’

Then I decided to not really care about…what other people thought of me at that moment.”

From that point on, Mr. Prescott devoted himself to Shakespeare. Most recently, he performed the role of Capulet in Romeo and Juliet.

“I wasn’t very good but I did my best and people said I did really well,” Mr. Prescott says.

Mr. Prescott is a peer mentor with CEDA Pathways and also sits on the student advisory council, a group of youth who help shape programming, receive specialized training such as Food Handler and CPR certification, and are paid for their work.

“I’m getting training and I get a paycheque. I get to teach other people so I get to help. Working with other people, I feel like that’s improving [myself], and [I’m learning to speak] with other people confidently,” Mr. Prescott says.

Cody Prescott is just one of many CEDA Pathways success stories.

According to Program Director Darlene Klyne, it is important to have peer mentors like Mr. Prescott.

“The younger kids need to see Aboriginal and newcomer kids succeeding in a role; I think that’s critically important. And [the mentors] can relate really well to the younger kids – just a year ago they were the younger students,” Ms. Klyne says.

One of the key parts of the CEDA Pathways program is the financial incentives. Each month students receive a stipend to purchase a bus pass or school supplies.

And starting in Grade 9 students receive a $1,000 scholarship for each year they complete the program, up to a total of $4,000.

The healthy meal component is vitally important, Ms. Klyne says.

“You don’t do anything without food, especially when you’re working with young people. They’re coming into your building at 3:30 p.m., they may not have eaten all day and they’re going to be hungry.

The first thing you’ve got to do feed them so they’re prepared to do the work.”

The summer school program is helping kids catch up on their studies and is proving very successful; last year

100 per cent of the students enrolled finished the program. According to Ms. Klyne, CEDA Pathway’s summer school model is successful because it is offered locally, is wellsupported, and is free.

“I think some people are under the assumption inner city kids may not want to go to summer school, that it’s totally off their radar, and that’s not true,” Ms. Klyne says. “They want to get caught up, they want to feel like they can succeed. Often if they don’t achieve credits through the year they’re feeling really discouraged. If they can go to summer school and get an extra credit it really motivates them to move forward.”

23

CEDA Pathways received a grant of $100,000 over two years to support the student advisory council, nutrition program and summer school. The funding is drawn from the Moffat Family Fund.

To hear more about CEDA Pathways, head to rivercity360.org.

Incorporating Indigenous culture CEDA Pathways utilizes the Circle of Courage, a model of positive youth development that integrates Indigenous philosophies of child-rearing. It portrays the four growth needs of all children: Belonging, Mastery, Independence and Generosity.

importance of giving back and being a positive influence.

Through their involvement with the program, kids understand the

While many traditional Indigenous teachings are ingrained in CEDA

“When our kids get to Grade 11 and 12, they’re really in that Generosity [area of development], they’ve come around the Circle in so many ways,” says Program Director Darlene Klyne.

Pathways programming, Ms. Klyne looks forward to including more information about the legacy of residential schools.

“What’s really important is how we work with young people to understand what their history is.”

Incredible Impact

Welcome Place’s Executive Director Rita Chahal with J.P. Venegas, who came to Canada as a refugee claimant and now works as a Building Manager with the organization.

Making a claim – and a life –

in Canada

Lack of funding won’t stop program supporting refugee claimants 24

I

t was early in the new millennium when Jean Pierre (J.P.) Venegas realized it was no longer safe for him in his home country of Chile.

As a lawyer working with human rights complaints against the country’s national airline, Mr. Venegas had inadvertently crossed the government.

At the time, the country was under military dictatorship and by challenging the government with legitimate human

rights complaints, Mr. Venegas says he was labeled a Communist.

“If you were not with the government you were immediately tagged as a Communist. When I tried to fix that situation was when I discovered it was no longer safe for me. So I decided to leave,” he says.

In an effort to ease his situation, Mr. Venegas took a job with Delta Airlines and was living temporarily in the United States. With the collapse of the airline industry following the September 11 attacks, Mr. Venegas was out of work and stuck in the U.S. because he was afraid to return to Chile; he started to look for a country to immigrate to.

He eventually received notice he could travel to Emerson, MB for a Jan. 2 interview with Canadian Border Services.

“I thought, ‘Where in the name of God is Emerson, Manitoba? There was No GPS at the time, so you had to grab

“I love the city and I love the province.

I love Canada.”

a big map and try to find out where it is,” he says.

He drove three days from his home in Fort Lauderdale, FL. “My vehicle was a Florida vehicle, so it had very good air conditioning but the heat was not good. So it’s me driving with two jackets and a blanket, and scraping the windows inside for three days.”

Arriving at the border, he was questioned for six hours before Border Services allowed him to enter Canada as a refugee claimant. He did not initially know where to go, and was told Winnipeg was just hour or so away.

When Mr. Venegas had worked for the Chilean national airline he had flown with Chilean athletes to the 1999 Pam Am Games in Winnipeg.

“It was so green and it was so nice [then] and it was so beautiful from the skies when you are flying overhead.

And I said, ‘Oh, Winnipeg, yes I know that city, I’m going to go there!’ And I start driving. I start looking at white everywhere. No green. No lakes. No geese… only white.”

“Anyone that walks through our door, and is looking for protection, is able to get the assistance they need from us.”

Syrian refugees with staff at Welcome Place.

Once in Winnipeg, he received help from Welcome Place.

Welcome Place’s In Canada Protection Program is for refugee claimants like Mr. Venegas. The program helps refugee claimants find shelter, food and appropriate clothing, facilitates access to health and translation services, as well as aids refugees as they file their board claim.

There are generally between 50 and 60 refugee claimants annually, says Rita Chahal, Executive Director of Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council, which is affectionately referred to as Welcome Place. Already this year, 160 refugee claimants have been involved with the organization.

Due to changes in its funding structure in 2012, Welcome Place receives no funding to run programs for refugee claimants or family-sponsored refugees. Despite this, they continued to offer programming at a deficit.

“Anyone that walks through our door, and is looking for protection, is able to get the assistance they need from us,” Ms. Chahal says.

Mr. Venegas received his Canadian Citizenship five years ago. Today, he works at Welcome Place as a Building Manager, and he loves his work – especially showing new refugees how wonderful it is to live in Winnipeg.

“There are many issues; with the new flavours in food, with the city, the weather but you just need to take the time, one or two minutes, to sit down [with the refugees], to show them you are a former refugee, and they understand and they can see that this is working.”

He, his wife and their 10-year-old son are proud to call Winnipeg home – and they’re helping other refugees feel the same.

“I love the city and I love the province. I love Canada.”

Welcome Place’s In-Canada Protection Program is receiving a grant for $90,000 over two years, with a matching grant for an additional $60,000 over two years for every dollar Welcome Place is able to raise. The grants will be drawn from the hundreds of Community Building funds held at The Foundation.

Supporting refugees from Syria – and around the world In a typical year Welcome Place works with 600 refugees. In the beginning of 2016, they saw 900 in just two and a half months, thanks to the influx of governmentsponsored refugees from Syria.

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To cope, Welcome Place almost doubled its staff to a total of 70 people and opened two new temporary buildings to house refugees when they first arrive.

It has also had to rejig the way it offers programming to newcomers; bringing in service providers such as Manitoba START – which helps with language and education – to work with the refugees.

The majority of Welcome Place clients are sponsored by government or individuals. And not all of the refugees coming now are from Syria. Welcome Place continues to receive refugees from Congo, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Afghanistan and Nepal, amongst others.

By the end of the 2016, 2,000 Syrian refugees are expected to make their way to Winnipeg.

To hear J.P. Venegas talk about his experience as a refugee claimant, head to rivercity360.org.

Incredible Impact

Lasting support for

complex kids

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The historic Leacock Estate as it stands today, and drawings of the renovated interior (top row), including the round room (far right).

Marymound’s Manager of Fund Development, Mardy Yager and CEO Jay Rodgers.

Marymound project hopes continuing connections will change the course of lives

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or the most vulnerable young “[These kids are] involved with police, women in the child welfare they’re involved with justice, they’re system, life is wracked with involved with hospitals, the emergency instability and a lack of support. rooms,” Mr. Yager says.

Marymound’s new Complex Needs The CNMHS, located at Marymound’s and Mental Health Service is looking main Scotia Street campus, has three to change that by never completely phases. discharging clients.

The first is a secured six-bed “If we just have a short-term stabilization and assessment unit, stabilization and assessment and send which opened September 2015. them back to community, they’re at risk Specialized staff including psychiatric of returning to their previous lifestyles,” nurses, psychologists, behavioural explains Mardy Yager, Manager of Fund specialists, youth care practitioners and Development with Marymound. “Our occupational therapists are on every shift kids are way too complex. Their family to work with the young women. Staff is dynamics, if they have trained to see each girl’s family involved, are strengths. way too complex…

“These girls have The trust and the There has to be that engaged in high risk relationships that continuity of care behaviours, they’ve have been built and that’s why we’ve been victimized, they’ve will stay in place as developed this whole been exploited, maybe approach.” there have been suicide they go through the Marymound attempts,” explains transition process supports 3,000 Marymound’s CEO Jay children and youth Rodgers. “But here they annually with a are, they’re alive and variety of programming including living they’re in our program. So they have arrangements, educational supports resilience.” and clinical and therapeutic services.

The second phase of the CNMHS – Programs use a holistic approach an on-site graduated care home – will that including meeting the physical, ensure youth remain connected to the emotional, psychological and spiritual stabilization teams they worked with in needs of young people in care. phase one.

Complex Needs and Mental Health “The trust and the relationships that Service (CNMHS) will target the 50 have been built will stay in place as they to 100 teenage girls in the system who go through the transition process,” Mr. consume a disproportionately high Rodgers says. number of public services.

This 10-bed graduated care home

will be housed in the historic Leacock Estate (see sidebar). It is expected the average stay will be 12-18 months long, after which the young women can be discharged back into the community.

The girls will never lose contact with their supportive staff, however, making phase three of the program vitally important.

“We’re going to be an integral part of transitioning them into adulthood at age 18,” Mr. Rodgers says. “There’s a wealth of information that says unless you continue to support these young people at age 18, they often end up homeless, in jail, on EIA, or missing.”

Marymound already has many services on site that will be available to the young women in the CNMHS, including education support, opportunities for work experience, and recreational and cultural programming.

Up to 85 per cent of clients are First Nations, so Marymound incorporates Indigenous teachings in all that it does.

“A lot of our kids are still reacting to the impacts of the intergenerational abuse that occurred through the residential schools,” Mr. Yager says. “They were disconnected from their culture…

In order to move forward you’ve got to know where you came from so we work really hard to provide anything and everything these kids need to help them on their journey.”

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To hear more about Marymound, head to rivercity360.org.

The Leacock Estate renovation project The Leacock Estate is a heritage mansion built in 1882 by E.P. Leacock. Until 2015 it was the residence of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, who founded Marymound. The Sisters were recently called back to Toronto after serving in Winnipeg for more than 100 years.

Marymound has launched a $5 million capital campaign to extensively renovate the Leacock Estate. It is engaging the Indigenous community in

the capital campaign and renovation to ensure the facility incorporates traditional teachings. For example, there will be a round room where clients can do smudges and hold ceremonies.

The Foundation is supporting phase two of the Complex Needs and Mental Health Service – the renovation of the Leacock Estate – with a $500,000 grant, drawn from the Moffat Family Fund.

Incredible Impact

Dawn Isaac, Elaine Isaac and Mary Courchene say workshop participants appreciate their candidness in sharing the family’s residential school experience.

Family shares residential school experience to help community 28

spotlight

Community

Generations healing

T

generations

hree generations of Anishinaabe women are helping our community by sharing their personal story of overcoming the legacy of residential schools.

Elder Mary Courchene, daughter Elaine Isaac and granddaughter Dawn Isaac help teach people about the intergenerational effects of residential schools. Their knowledge helps Indigenous families heal and aids counsellors and practitioners to understand the complexity of the situation faced by our First Nations Peoples.

The threesome works in part through Aulneau Renewal Centre, a charitable organization offering personalized counselling services for individuals and families, as well as professional training opportunities.

In order to help others, the family must face and overcome its traumatic past. For Courchene, her residential school experience is inextricably linked to the Missionary Oblate Sisters of St. Boniface, who formed Aulneau Renweal Centre in 1971.

“This was the Order, the nuns, that were part of my residential school experience growing up as a child in Sagkeeng. This was the very Order that had supervised me as a child when I was forced by law to attend residential school,” Ms. Courchene says.

The residential school Ms. Courchene attended was next door to her parents’ home.

“It was very traumatic for me to have to live beside my parents but yet never be able to communicate with them, or be a part of a family. Consequently after 10 years our family began to disintegrate,” she says.

Fast forward a few years. It’s 1971 and Mary Courchene is 31-years-old with seven children. She wants to give her family the opportunities she never had, so she packs them up and moves Winnipeg to pursue post-secondary education.

Fast forward another few years to the late ’80s and early ’90s when the residential school era first stated to come to light.

“The floodgates were opened and everyone wanted to talk about this… incarceration of generations of children,” Ms. Courchene says. “Naturally there was resentment; [I] had to live through that trauma. And now in my adulthood I had to relive all of that, looking at all the mistakes I’ve made as a result of being a child in residential school.”

Ms. Courchene received a request from a nun from Aulneau to sit on its Board of Directors. Since coming to Winnipeg, Ms. Courchene has been hugely influential; she was the founding Principal of Children of the Earth High School and Dean of Aboriginal Education at Red River College, amongst other achievements.

Community spotlight At first, Ms. Courchene flat out refused. But after the nun’s persistence, she reconsidered.

“I thought to myself, ‘When is it time to get over the anger, the resentment? I’m getting on in years, why don’t I put that aside and why don’t I just sit on the Board and see what happens.’”

It was around this time that Ms. Elaine Isaac was doing her Masters in Social Work and dealing with her own issues surrounding residential schools.

“At one point I thought I had a mental illness,” Ms. Elaine Isaac says. “Like many people I was just feeling the effects of the trauma that we had sustained as First Nations People, and as a family. Our family was particularly affected because both my parents were in residential school.”

Ms. Elaine Isaac attended a conference put on by Aulneau, and soon after agreed to develop an Aboriginal focused approach for programming.

“The program took a look at the effects of trauma and the ways Anishinaabe people are portrayed as being less than ideal parents and that they basically fill up the child welfare system,” Ms. Elaine Isaac says. “I wanted to point out there was a historical reason and then to point to some of the wonderful parenting paradigms that were in place since time immemorial.”

Soon after Ms. Dawn Isaac became involved at Aulneau, adding another layer to the intergenerational tale. Today, she works as Aulneau’s Director of Development.

The family offers workshops a few times each year.

“It’s really experiential for everyone in the room,” Ms. Dawn Isaac says of the workshops. “Everyone’s sitting in a circle facing each other, no barriers. And at the end of the workshops people have shared and cried and we’ve found it connects to their own history whether they’re First Nations or not.”

The Winnipeg Foundation is committed to upholding the principles of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Our grants support a wide range of projects that celebrate Indigenous cultures and promote healing.

The Winnipeg Foundation has supported Aulneau Renewal Centre with numerous grants totaling more than $515,000 since 2000.

To hear more about the Courchene/Isaac family, head to rivercity360.org.

Easing medical trauma for the youngest patients

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awn Isaac’s son Sacha was very sick at birth. Six weeks premature, he required two open heart surgeries as well as a major stomach surgery.

Today Sacha is eight-years-old and physically healthy, but the experience has left him – and his family – with signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“Little ones don’t understand that what’s happening to them is saving their lives. What they feel is the painful medical procedures,” Ms. Isaac says.

Together with a colleague whose family had also undergone significant medical trauma, Ms. Isaac began researching what is being done elsewhere to combat pediatric medical traumatic stress. She discovered some breakthrough work at the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Ms. Isaac and her colleagues at Aulneau have developed supports here in Winnipeg, including toolkits for healthcare professionals and families. They’re currently reaching out to the healthcare community to determine the best way to work together to integrate this knowledge.

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The Winnipeg Foundation provided a grant of $45,000 to support the development of the Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress program, with $10,000 drawn from the hundreds of Community Building funds held at The Foundation.

To hear more about the Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress program, head to rivercity360.org.

Incredible Impact

Will Week Monday, May 2 1pm-3pm Norberry-Glenlee Community Centre, 26 Molgat Avenue 1pm-3pm Charleswood Senior Centre, 5006 Roblin Boulevard 7pm-9pm Seven Oaks General Hospital, Wellness Institute

1075 Leila Avenue, Room 4 (very limited seating) Tuesday, May 3 1pm-3pm Sturgeon Heights Community Centre, 210 Rita Street 7pm-9pm Corydon Community Centre - River Heights Site,

1370 Grosvenor Avenue

19h-21h

Dependants with Disabilities *For family with loved ones with disabilities

Centre de service bilingues de Saint-Vital, 1005, chemin St. Mary’s (places très limité) *Ce séminaire est en français seulement

Wednesday, May 4 Noon-2pm Richardson Conference Centre, 1 Lombard Place,

Richardson Concourse Level, Salon A 7pm-9pm First Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg,

603 Wellington Crescent 7pm-9pm Bronx Park Community Centre,

720 Henderson Highway - Creative Arts Room 7pm-9pm Winakwa Community Centre, 980 Winakwa Road Thursday, May 5 1pm-3pm Reh-Fit Fitness Centre, 1390 Taylor Avenue

Seminar Room D (very limited seating) 1pm-3pm ACCESS Transcona, 845 Regent Avenue West

(very limited seating) 7pm-9pm Trinity United Church, 933 Summerside Avenue Friday, May 6 Noon-2pm BDC Building, 155 Carlton Street,

Lower Level, Meeting Room B

Perform a not-so-random act of kindness.

Make sure your wishes for the future of your family and your community are met. Attend a free estate planning seminar delivered by a local lawyer and learn about how to create a Will, update your existing Will and how you can easily make a charitable gift within your Will. Health Care Directives and Power of Attorney will also be covered. Seminars are free on a first come, first served basis. Seating is limited. Please register in advance by calling (204) 948-3394 in Winnipeg or by emailing pgt@gov.mb.ca

For more information visit

winnipegwill.com