The Newmarket-based Job Skills celebrated new outreach it managed with vulnerable groups thanks to the help of an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant.
The non-profit community training organization received approximately $69,000 from the foundation, which went in part toward a community outreach co-ordinator. This allowed the organization to better connect with organizations throughout the region, such as shelters, food banks and faith-based institutions.
Job Skills and representatives from the government and the foundation recognized the grant Dec. 14. Job Skills executive director Bethany Obermayer said the relationships built will last beyond the funding.
“We’re creating relationships and partnerships and community connections that otherwise wouldn’t have been made,” she said.
The funding was initially granted back in May. It comes from the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Resilient Communities Fund, meant to support programs or services that help the province recover and build capacity amidst the pandemic.
Foundation volunteer Shelley Wister-Smith said they made a good case for the funding.
“This translates into providing more assistance to run a program that helps people in the community who are at risk of, or currently living in, poverty to connect with services that will help them reach gainful employment,” she said.
The province funds the trillium foundation. Newmarket-Aurora MPP Dawn Gallagher Murphy said it is good to hear the positive impact the funding can bring about.
“People are still recovering from what’s happened over the past couple of years,” she said. “That’s something our government looks to support.”
One key relationship Job Skills is forging is with the Chippewas of Georgina Island. Community Outreach Coordinator Joel Patterson said they hope to raise awareness of Job Skills services and also run their programming on the island once a month.
“It’s a reciprocal relationship,” he said, adding their staff are also learning the best language and methods to reach out and teach the community there. “It’s an ongoing relationship, and one we’re hoping will last a very long time.”
As workplaces recover from the pandemic, Obermayer said there are plenty of jobs available, so they are helping to connect people with the right job for them.
Patterson further said that Job Skills is helping its clients become prepared to be in the workplace after two years of pandemic restrictions.
“Individuals have been at home for the past two years, unable to work and be out in public,” he said, adding that they are ensuring “they are job ready, so the employers, once it comes to training, there are no limitations.”
