- Municipalities proclaim Show Your Local Love Day on Sept. 23
- Call for applications to three-year program funding now open
September 22, 2021 – United Way Greater Toronto will launch its Community Recovery Campaign with its annual Show Your Local Love Day on Thursday, September 23. The campaign rallies individuals and workplaces across the GTA to fight local poverty by raising funds to support more than 280 agencies in neighbourhoods across Peel, Toronto, and York Region.
Municipalities are recognizing United Way’s key role in community in various ways: Toronto, Brampton, Caledon, Aurora, Georgina, Markham, Newmarket, Richmond Hill and Vaughan have proclaimed Sept. 23 Show Your Local Love Day, while Peel Region, Mississauga, York Region, East Gwillimbury, and King Township will broadcast their support over other channels, including social media.
“Your neighbours, your coworkers, your grandparents, your frontline service workers – they need you like they’ve never needed you before. The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for so many, and in particular for women, seniors and for Indigenous, Black and racialized individuals,” says Daniele Zanotti, United Way Greater Toronto President & CEO. “We can only build an equitable recovery if we are all in it together. That’s why we are turning to community once more and asking you to give whatever you can, big or small.”
For the past 19 months, United Way has worked with its network of frontline agencies to meet urgent needs brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, backing programs that provide safe havens for victims of domestic violence, that check in on isolated seniors, that address myriad mental health challenges, and that deliver culturally appropriate food and essentials.
Now, United Way is investing in an equitable recovery through its Community Program Grant stream, an open call for non-profits across the GTA to help meet the challenges ahead across 13 service areas, including housing and homelessness, food security and settlement. The three-year grants will demonstrate a deepened commitment to reconciliation and equity; a strong understanding of the geographic nature of poverty in the GTA; and outreach to new local partners. Applications from community agencies are being accepted through unitedwaygt.org/grant- opportunities.
Residents are encouraged to support an equitable community recovery by donating at unitedwaygt.org, or by raising funds through GetUP, which invites participants to get active in whichever ways they most enjoy, all while fundraising for United Way. Registration opens on Sept. 28.
Any first-time gifts of $10,000 or more made to United Way Greater Toronto before December 31 will be matched by The Bob Dorrance and Gail Drummond Major Gift Match.
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