This year, World Habitat Day was on Monday, October 4 and World Homelessness Day is on Sunday, October 10. While this year’s World Habitat Day theme tackles the issue of sustainability and renewable resources used in housing, we wanted to take this time to reflect...
By: Deborah Burrows Remember the phrase “you get more than you give”? It fits perfectly when describing the benefits of volunteering. I’ve volunteered since I was 12. For over 30 years, I’ve been meeting interesting people, working on new challenges, seeing my contribution make a difference...
By: Deborah Burrows In addition to the issues UWSM and our partners address throughout Simcoe Muskoka, we like to highlight some great organizations working in our community. Deborah Burrows, one of our volunteers and Board Directors, spoke with Nikki Glahn about her group, Barrie Families Unite....
Social isolation is a devastating yet sometimes invisible facet of poverty. Now, during the uncertain times of the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects that social isolation has on individuals experiencing it have become magnified. What is Social Isolation? Social isolation is the state of being cut off from...
United Way Simcoe Muskoka’s Urgent Needs Fund, like all our programs, serves a large geographical area. Our communities include everything from the Town of Blue Mountains to Huntsville, from Penetanguishine down to Bradford—and everywhere in between. With such a large area, the Urgent Needs Fund needed...
The Urgent Needs Fund has been assisting residents of Simcoe Muskoka living in low-income households and has been filling the needs-services gap that threatens to entrench people further into poverty since October 2019. Hundreds of recipients have benefited from the Urgent Needs Fund to meet...
Launched in October of 2019, United Way Simcoe Muskoka’s new Urgent Needs Fund has been assisting residents across Simcoe Muskoka with modest, one-time grants to overcome the everyday obstacles that poverty makes more difficult. In its first five months, the Urgent Needs Fund has already helped...
The Urgent Needs Fund was created in order to fill a needs-service gap in social services for those living in poverty. This new fund has changed hundreds of lives across our communities since its launch in October of 2019 and continues to do so alongside...
We know that poverty isn’t a simple issue. It’s complex and varies from place to place. It affects different people in different ways, though it universally limits the potential of everyone who is experiencing it. One of the reasons that poverty is so complex is because...
At the start of every new year, millions of Canadians think about ways to make the coming twelve months better than the last. We plan ways that we can grow personally, professionally and in our relationships. What people often forget about is to make a...
