Community service organizations funded through the Community Services Recovery Fund.
United Way Halifax is proud to have worked with United Way Centraide Canada as part of the Community Services Recovery Fund. This fund is a collaboration between the Canadian Red Cross, Community Foundations of Canada, and United Way Centraide Canada to provide funding to Community Service Organizations, including non-profit organizations, Indigenous Governing Bodies, and Registered Charities located in Canada. The Community Services Recovery Fund responds to what Community Service Organizations need right now and supports organizations as they adapt to the long-term impacts of the pandemic.
The Community Services Recovery Fund is a one-time investment of $400 million to help Community Service Organizations (charities, non-profits, Indigenous governing bodies) adapt, modernize, and be better equipped to improve the efficacy, accessibility, and sustainability of the community services that they are providing through the pandemic recovery and beyond.
The following projects are being supported in Halifax:
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The Peer Support Training Transformation Project
This project will help the organization redevelop and design their peer support training program and build capacity for volunteers and employees to deliver training on different platforms (i.e. virtual, hybrid model). It will help to adapt to continuing uncertainty around in-person sessions and by allowing for training virtually when required.
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Westwood Greenhouse Project
This project will expand on the AV Food Smart Program which was developed and implemented in 2020 to help program participants and tenants address food security issues.
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Empowering our community to self-sustainability
This project will allow DPAD to hire professional grant writers to advance the many goals and objectives to help members of the community cope with community issues.
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Internal Digital Transition
This project will transform outdated accounting system to a new modern digital platform, and relocate our student’s information into a digital CRM that streamlines proactive communication. The project will support long-term sustainability and will allow the organization to level up their engagement with funders, students, and community.
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Social Program Enhancement: From Creativity to Innovation
This project will move from creativity to innovation, working to end social isolation and loneliness for adults living with mental illness. The project will operationalize a single entry point and explore the feasibility of a range of programming opportunities for participants.
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Upgrading Chebucto Links Equipment and Quality
This project will upgrade equipment for staff, participants and volunteers, improve the quality of the videos and provide devices to access the information using modern equipment. This will enable the organization to reach more people by streaming and uploading quality and professional videos and streaming programs.
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Mental Health First Aid and Physical Wellness Support for DASC Team
This project will establish a mental and physical health resilience program for DASC employees and program participants. Through the delivery of mental health first aid training DASC will actively support the wellness of its employee and participant team as we emerge from the pandemic.
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The Innovating and Redesigning Structured Literacy and Reading Skills Instruction Project
This project will help with Redesigning Structured Literacy and Reading Skills Instruction. It will improve access and efficiency of structured literacy and reading skills instruction to adults with low literacy levels, and enable the organization to better support adults with low literacy through a blended learning model of education.
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Pilot DBDLI Community-Based Africentric E-Learning System
This project will pilot the DBDLI e-learning system within the African Nova Scotian community by designing and delivering a series of free learning workshops. It will enhance capacity-building activities within the community and help the organization develop an understanding of how our educational services should be delivered to benefit the community.
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Capturing and Sharing our Cultural History
This multi-faceted project that focuses on museum infrastructure, document content preservation, educational program development, and promotion of the past through live video. It will move the Society into the 21st century.
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Digital Communication Plan
This project will invest in a subscription to digital medical communication software to modernize and reduce barriers within the Halifax Sexual Health Centre’s clinical space. By creating new opportunities for communicative accessibility, this investment will offer long term benefits to patients and staff in offering sexual, reproductive, and gender-affirming healthcare.
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Improving Online Community Engagement via Laing Online
This project will improve online service delivery, support and engagement via an investment in staff training, new equipment, and updated approaches to programming, communication and evaluation. Modernizing online strategies will help to increase web-based community engagement by providing consistent, reliable, and high quality options that are relevant, inclusive and accessible.
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Audio Visual Multi-Media Upgrade
This project will purchase multi-media hardware and software to enhance on-line presence and develop appropriate training and user manuals for volunteers working in the audio/video program. It will increase the quality of the experience for those delivering and receiving the service on-line and enable consistent training and usage of volunteer technicians.
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Adaption: Bringing the Past into the Future
This project will provide upgraded technology and enhanced software, to deliver a much-improved virtual experience for those unable to meet in person and provide the organization’s counseling person with more effective faith-based mental health resource material to enhance this service.
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Champions for Life
This project empower participants by exposing them to mentorship, mental health, success planning, historical pride, financial literacy, race relations, and social and economic development. The above will be incorporated into the game of basketball to develop on and off the court successes, thus making “Champion 4 Life”.
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Parish Internet Presence Expansion
This project will boost the organization’s reach and quality of offerings to the community via social media and the internet. It will help them expand their capability to share light, life, hope, and healing into their neighbourhood, city, province and country.
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PALS Post-Pandemic Service Delivery Enhancement Project
This project will help the organization seek a renewed look at the needs of the community it serves. The information gained will guide the organization in determining how best to fulfil that need, including using new and innovative approaches, systems and equipment.
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Educational Outreach Program
This project will take the lessons learned during COVID to modify the Educational Outreach program into a more flexible program that will either be delivered by Museum personnel, or a standalone program delivered in the classroom by the teacher. This enables the program to be flexible in delivery regardless of access to schools or to remote schools outside of the Halifax Regional Municipality.
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Technology Upgrade for the Richard Preston Centre for Excellence
This project will ensure the new center has the technology and IT services it needs, to meet current standards in technology that will facilitate program delivery to our clientele in a state of-the-art environment, making in-person and hybrid possible.
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Youth Voices Expansion and Social Media Strategy
This project will expand the current program by recruiting new program participants, as well as developing a social media strategy to connect with participants and supporters of the program. This project will modernize the current program that has not had a social media platform in the past.
The following projects are being supported in areas of Nova Scotia not served by a United Way:
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Social Skills
This project will help EHFRC build relationships, and connect anytime with families and potential clients on easily accessible social media, where they are, as they access support and information. Our website is dated and needs a redesign, and staff needs to produce and manage online content to improve all social media.
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Resourcing and Training our Team for the Future
This project will modernize the technology used and the training provided for the team as they continue to respond to spiritual and social needs in our region. The way teams meet and plan (i.e., virtual) and the way organizations communicate with clients and donors (i.e., online) have changed – this project will position them to keep pace with these changes.
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IT Gap Analysis and Purchase of a Communication Sharing App
This project will procure an external agency to conduct an IT Gap Analysis to gain a better understanding of hardware, software and human resource needs. An IT Gap Analysis will provide the organization with a framework to modernize systems in order for employees to work remotely when necessary to serve the community.
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Feeding Community Programming: NGOs Collaborating Through Food Programming
This project will continue the collaborative response to pandemic-related food insecurity and social isolation for VCLA /KAP clients and the community. The project will demonstrate that community capacity can be developed to continue work even as as government funds end.
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Reaching Further - Reaching More
This project will bring online visitors closer to the Yarmouth County Museum, Archives, and Historical Society. In order to adapt to the “new normal” of hybrid meetings and gatherings, they have identified the need for an assisted device for joining in-person assemblies with those of online meetings and programs now being offered through the Zoom platform.
The following projects are being supported in Lunenburg County:
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COVID-19 Adaptation and Modernization at Hinchinbrook Farm Society
This project will adapt and modernize existing practices at Hinchinbrook Farm with consideration of current COVID-19 guidelines. By implementing new technology, access to technology and tools to decrease the transmission of harmful viruses such as COVID-19, this project will reduce the risk of acquiring such viruses among our vulnerable populations.
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The Ark's Mobile Marketplace
This project will give clients the opportunity to work in a retail setting and to go where larger crowds gather promote themselves to a larger population.
The following projects are being supported in Pictou County:
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Expansion of Arts are for Everyone
This project will engage a term project manager to assist the organization in creating 8 new outreach relationships that will impact 700-1000 community members from equity deserving populations, while also facilitating equity, diversity and inclusion and strategic planning activities and staff training in key success areas. These three focus areas will build long-term resiliency and impact.
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Program Enhancement and Modernization
This project will create or enhance programs that respond to gaps and goals identified by participants during COVID. The programs will ensure participants have access to technology, tools and equipment, skills, and meaningful experiences that fulfill their identified goals and needs relevant to the changed (or exposed) social and economic conditions.
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Kindness Pays in Life Changing Ways!
This project will invest in vinyl mattresses which will decrease the possibility of Covid and disease transfer between participants using the facility, strengthening the organization and its ability to serve their participants in a safer manner. In addition, the project will redesign and expand pre-Covid programming with respect to certification courses, workshops and training materials.
The following projects are being supported in Colchester and Cumberland Counties:
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Redesign policies to ensure healthy lives and wellbeing
The project will review present policies to identify gaps, deletions, additions focusing on equity to move the organization forward, especially the lessons learned during the first COVID-19 pandemic; and will engage with providers of templates for updating policies which include COVID, workplace adaptation, services, diversity inclusion, governance and management.
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Recovery and moving on from COVID
This project will help the organization better understand the social, and emotional impact COVID has on staff members and adult learners. It will help them adapt efficiently to the new delivery (using technology and distance learning), helping CALA support staff and learners embrace the new methodology encompassing the social and emotional aspects as well as the general learning needs.
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Family Navigator Project
This project will create a Family Navigator position to assist parents/caregivers navigating community resources, services and supports to support the health and well-being of their family. Since Covid-19, there has been a steady increase in walk-in traffic, phone calls, and social media messages requesting this kind of service.
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Ship's Company Accessibility Building/Technical Improvement Plan
This project supports an accessibility building/technical improvement plan that will support architectural and building consultation, accessibility consultation and the purchasing of technical equipment to support accessible programming and the improved accessibility of the theatre. This plan will support the organization in becoming a more accessible and equitable space for audiences, artists, and the community.
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Mi'kmaq Physical Activity Strategic Planning Toolkit
This project will create the Mi’kmaq Physical Activity Strategic Planning Toolkit to help communities develop good physical activity strategic plans, build community capacity and help community members learn transferable skills. It is intended to be used as a resource to help communities understand why and how to do strategic planning, and to help guide the process.