Making Change, a not-for-profit organization of volunteers led by a community of Black women, gathered at the MacLaren Art Centre in downtown Barrie on Saturday to celebrate a $97,500 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
The organization was founded in 2019 by Michèle Newton, Stephanie Gourlie and Shelly Skinner to plan and co-ordinate activities, projects and events, as well as to spark discussions and conversations about inclusion and diversity across Simcoe County.
In 2020, they added a team of volunteers that organized three events — the Art Engagement Project targeted for youth, Voices of Black Women in Business and a Black History Month celebration downtown.
The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF), an agency of the provincial government, supports local organizations that deliver essential programs and services within the province.
The grant will be used by Making Change to retain a program director to develop a new strategic plan, focus on website upgrades and increase their digital presence to serve their community.
Board of directors chair Keisha-Ann Shaw Hill spoke to BarrieToday about the importance of the grant and what it means to the local organization.
“It has really kept us afloat during the year. It made us be able to do a lot more than we would have been able to do without the grant," she said. “We are having this grant recognition ceremony just to give them (OTF) an update on what we have been up to during the year and how much they have assisted with the program.
“We have five board members, they are all volunteers, everybody has their own individual career to work on, and as the saying goes, many hands make light work,” Shaw Hill added.
She says having a full-time program director now opens up many more doors for them, as they now have somebody who is able to do the groundwork for their projects, so they can have more projects and community meetings, more community involvement and more people can get to know about Making Change.
“Our most successful event to date, in terms of community reach, was for Black History Month,” Shaw Hill said. “We had a project in most of the towns and cities in Simcoe County, such as in Innisfil at the community library, where we had a good turnout. "
One of our presenters had a whole presentation about what Making Change does, how to become an ally in the community, and provided information that people don’t get to know or hear about on a daily basis," she added. “That was huge for us, just the amount of people who we were able to reach. So many people signed up for our quarterly newsletter and also donated to us."
Doug Jure, an Ontario Trillium Foundation volunteer, was on hand and said he liked what he saw.
“This group here is dealing with issues that divide us as a community and help to make us a more pluralistic community,” he said.
“We need to know who these people are. My wife and I moved up from Toronto 18 years ago, which was very pluralistic, and we’ve seen quite a change in the people that are arriving here, so with better understanding among us all, this is what this organization is all about," Jure added.
