Sponsored by Union Gas
United Way/Centraide Windsor-Essex County
Lorraine Goddard
Committed to reducing poverty, supporting kids and families and strengthening neighbourhoods across the local community, United Way/Centraide Windsor-Essex County creates solutions and mobilizes partners, volunteers and donors to uplift people every day.
One in five people live in poverty in Windsor-Essex. United Way strives to improve and empower their lives, developing strategies designed to give people the tools they need to find pathways out of poverty.
United Way’s On Track to Success program helps kids succeed in school and grow into healthy adults. When school is closed, the Summer Lunch Program provides children with healthy lunches. The Emergency Assistance fund helps people encountering tough challenges.
With its partners, United Way has been instrumental in decreasing wait times for counselling from 12 weeks to zero, boosting access to fresh and healthy food, improving neighbourhood conditions, and growing community gardens from two to 25.
Bringing people together, United Way hosts events with partners, including Labour Appreciation Night in partnership with the Windsor & District Labour Council and the Volunteers Changing Lives Awards in partnership with The Windsor Star.
The Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County
Kathleen Thomas
As a leader in cultural diversity, multiculturalism and human rights, the Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County (MCC) creates a welcoming community for all through education, community engagement and promotion of diversity and equality.
The 42-year-old organization helps immigrants settle and integrate into their new country by assisting them with their understanding of Canadian life, acquiring life skills and increasing their confidence and competence in handling daily situations.
Demonstrating best practices in core areas of service in the community, MCC advances culturally competent health care through the Nurse Practitioner Clinic, connecting newcomers to the services and primary care in the area. The council’s Language Translation and Interpretation Services provide the community with trained and qualified translation and interpretation professionals in over 50 languages.
An annual highlight for Windsor-Essex residents and visitors is the Carrousel of the Nations Festival, coordinated by MCC since 1976. The award-winning festival connects people to the community’s wide and fascinating array of cultures.
Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society
Bill Bevan
Vulnerable children have been protected by the Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society since 1899. Providing round-the-clock child protection services, the society’s mission is carried out by 400 staff, 231 foster parents and 227 volunteers.
The organization works collaboratively with more than 40 service providers and cultural groups to offer enrichment, education and supports to children and families.
Acting as the barometer of health and well-being for local families, the society plays an active role in community planning initiatives. In April, the new Central 33 Hub is opening in Leamington, giving Essex County residents centralized access to the City of Windsor’s employment and social services/Ontario Works team, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, Community Living Essex County, Children First and the Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society.
Providing services to one in every eight children in Windsor-Essex, the society has been able to offer enhanced programming since the Bill & Dot Muzzatti Child & Family Centre was added to the Society’s Riverside Dr. E. property in 2013.
