Ottawa Boys and Girls Club receives emergency funding amid funding gap

BGC Ottawa receives emergency funding The city has provided BGC Ottawa with emergency funding to help prevent further service cuts. CTV's Katelyn Wilson reports.

The Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa received emergency funding from the city as the organization continues to face financial difficulties.

The non-profit, now known as BGC Ottawa, received $80,000 from the city after the organization made cuts and closures to several programs and services.

Most recently, BGC Ottawa made the decision to cut the afterschool program at the Cambridge Street Community Public School.

"We’ve had to make some pretty major changes at all our clubhouses," said CEO Adam Joiner. "It’s a crisis point for our community and we need to rally around our youth because they are the future of the city."

The organization provides thousands of valuable services from sports to after school programs for thousands of kids in Ottawa.

Joiner says the money will help fill some of the gaps across the city from previously cut services, but says the organization is still looking for sustainable core funding.

"The support needed for those youth have increased and the costs have increased, but the funding hasn’t," said Joiner.

While the city provides roughly $300,000 to the group each year, it’s a number that hasn’t changed much in more than 20 years.

The rest is left up to donations and despite a record year for donations, the non-profit is still $600,000 shy of what it needs to operate.

"Unless we can have that conversation with the city, the province or the feds, the reality is we can’t keep funding it privately," said long-time donor Michael Wilson. "There’s just not enough private funding available."