$25K grant from Ontario government strengthens frontline care at Unity Project

Unity Project for Relief of Homelessness in London celebrated their receipt of an Ontario government grant Wednesday night.

“The Ontario Trillium Foundation, I want to thank them for recognizing the wonderful work all of you do,” said Terence Kernaghan, MPP for London North Centre. “By providing $25,000 in a seed grant to the Unity Project.”

Kernaghan says the grant will provide an emergency shelter, traditional housing and stability support for the project.

He adds it will help establish an on-site training centre and ensure frontline support staff are well-equipped, something members of the project described as “critical.”

“The ability to turn this one space into a place that supports hybrid meetings and training and provides a structured environment for new staff reintegration, for debriefing for other kinds of day-to-day meetings is really important,” said Chuck Lazenby, executive director with Unity Project. “I think for charities, particularly working in the homelessness sector, core infrastructure and staff training and development is viewed as a secondary thing to direct service delivery. But really it’s fundamental to what we do.”