A message from the CEO

As you may recall, when The Winnipeg Foundation launched its Strategic Plan last year, one of our goals under the plan’s Champion Pillar was to initiate collaborations and convene with others around key community issues, particularly around children entering and exiting the existing Manitoba child welfare system.

As part of evaluating and fine-tuning our own internal systems connected to this pillar, The Foundation has introduced a new, unified granting stream supporting youth and children to maximize the impact of grantmaking in this area.

This year, three distinct grant programs—Nourishing Potential, Growing Active Kids, and Camp and Summer Program Grants—were amalgamated into the Children and Youth Program Grants stream. The new stream enables organizations to access the same amount of funding, while lessening the administrative burden and reporting requirements.

The goal is to enable organizations to invest their time delivering transformational programs, not in submitting multiple grant applications. For many youth, social, physical, and economic barriers can make programming inaccessible. The organizations supported through new Children and Youth Program Grants help reduce these barriers.

The Foundation is in the fortunate position to be a voice and influence positive results on key issues facing our city and province, recognizing the complex challenges facing our community will not be solved through granting alone.

Streamlining our grant processes to provide easier access for agencies is just one small step we can take to help support better outcomes for youth in, and aging out of, the current child welfare system. We hope you enjoy the
many stories in this issue of Working Together reflective of youth supports and programming.

Miigwetch. Thank you. Merci.

SKY BRIDGES ICD.D | PRESIDENT AND CEO