Funding from KW Community Foundation will go a long way for these 5 organizations

The Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation (KWCF) is helping support local organizations that are led by and serve the region's Black, Indigenous and racialized communities.

Through the Racial Equity Fund, almost $436,000 in funding went to 29 local organizations. CBC KW spoke to five of them about how the funding will help the community they work with.

You vs. You Basketball Training

Tim Doyle said mentorship is big with the group of young people his organization works with.

He is one of the co-founders of You vs. You Basketball Training, an organization that works with kids as young as 10 and college and university students on developing their basketball skills.

Doyle said the organization launched just a few months before the pandemic and ever since, the group has been doing what it can over the last 21 months to meet and practice.

"We've made it work and it's always about youth and the community," Doyle told CBC KW. "It's more than just basketball."

He said the funding the organization received will be going toward its upcoming summer camps and new reversible jerseys for the team.

Kind Minds Family Wellness

Following George Floyd's murder in the summer of 2020, Ajirioghene Evi-Cobbinah said she and other colleagues saw a need to check in with the region's Black community. It wasn't long after that they launched Kind Minds Family Wellness (KMFW) in Kitchener.

KMFW offers culturally sensitive counselling and numerous programs for youth and seniors including book clubs, cooking classes and art workshops. 

Evi-Cobbinah said it feels good to be recognized and the funding will help ensure programs that could only be offered once can be offered long-term and give youth and others taking part an opportunity to give feedback on those programs.

"[Youth] have been waiting [for] an opportunity to have their own space to inform programing for them," she said.

Levant Canada

Levant Canada has helped sponsor dozens of refugee families to the Waterloo region since 2015.

Program coordinator Hiba ElMiari said the programs that are offered incorporate dance, art and sport to help newcomers connect with other families, heal from trauma and practice their English in a safe space. 

She said it's also helped the broader community learn more about different cultures. Since the pandemic, however, ElMiari said they had to put a pause on most of their programs and offer only a few online.

ElMiari said the group will be using the funding it received for a mural in collaboration with other organizations that do similar work.

She said organizations "will work on the mural, reflecting and expressing different points of views and different perspectives in the process of healing from grief."

Bring on the Sunshine

Bring on The Sunshine has been working with Black youth in the region for just over a decade.

Executive director Alice Penny said the organization started out small, offering day camp for kids. Now, it puts together festivals and offers education programing in schools and leadership development for post-secondary students.  

She said before the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, it was sometimes challenging to get funding for their programs, but has since noticed a positive shift in the community to support more BIPOC organizations.

"It's amazing to see this shift in the community or in people looking at what we do and wanting to be a part of that," she said.

Penny said the funding the group received will go toward the work and programing it offers youth throughout the year and some will also go toward programing Black History Month, whether it's virtual or in-person.

Focus for Ethnic Women

Renu Bhandari said the main focus of the organization is to empower BIPOC women in the community.

She's is the executive director of Focus for Ethnic Women, which offers a wide range of programs like computer literacy workshops, conversation and wellness groups and soon, a leadership program that will teach women the skills to become board members of an organization.

"It's to give racialized women a voice," she said. "I think if you give them an opportunity like this, they open up more about where they think the need is out there."

Bhandari said the funding will go a long way to support the program, which she hopes will launch in late January.