Stonegate CHC is thrilled to announce that the Ontario Trillium Foundation has awarded them with a capital grant to help complete our brand new Health Centre. On Friday, local Etobicoke-Lakeshore MPP Peter Milczyn stopped by the Stonegate Community Health Centre’s (CHC) new space at 10 Neighbourhood Lane, which is still under construction to offer congratulations on receiving a $149,600 Capital grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF). The funds will be used to help create a large, fully accessible and well-equipped community activity space for recreational activities and events within the new Centre, slated to open this summer.
“I share a long and fulfilling working relationship with Stonegate CHC.” Said MPP Milczyn. “I know just how welcome this new, fully accessible community activity space will be with regard to their programming and to the fostering and promoting of more active, healthy lifestyles for all ages.”
The construction is taking place next to the site from which the CHC has been providing health and health promotion services to the Stonegate community for over 25 years. The Community Activity Space will host a range of physical activity programs and events for people of all ages and abilities. It will be equipped with a floor ideal for exercise and dance, mirrors, dance bars, a wide range of fitness equipment like mats, balls, weights, bands, skipping ropes and hula hoops – so that when your doctor recommends more activity for better health, you can “fill that prescription”!
“We are very excited about the new Community Activity Room that the OTF is funding” said Bev Leaver, the Centre’s Executive Director. “We’ve never had programming space like this at the health centre and it will significantly enrich our ability to offer group physical activities to keep our community members moving. We will engage the community and invite them to decide what type of physical activity programming they would value the most.”
An agency of the Government of Ontario, the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) is one of Canada’s largest granting foundations. With a budget of over $136 million, OTF awards grants to some 1,000 projects every year to build healthy and vibrant Ontario communities.
Despite this OTF grant and the core funding from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, the CHC estimates it still needs to raise about $100,000 to equip some areas of the new centre – such as the Children’s Activity Room; the large Program Room; the Demonstration Kitchen; and Community Board Room, as well as acquire some needed equipment for a few new examination rooms.
To raise the funds, the centre is launching a Capital Campaign “Building… For a Healthy Community” and welcomes donations. All donations are tax deductible and donors will be recognized and thanked in the opening events that are being planned. For information about our capital campaign, please visit our website at www.stonegatechc.org
