United Way Colchester calls for donations

TRURO — United Way Colchester is calling for donations to help fund community-oriented programming.

"We've had a massive increase of funding requests over this year specifically for our programming," said Sarah Flemming, executive director of United Way of Colchester County. "Every year, we fund different things, but our program funding is substantial to what we do.

"It's reinvesting in the community through agencies that apply for spending."

In a press release from the organization, they noted they have seen an increase of over $150,000 for funding requests.

Flemming said during COVID, the generous donations from local individuals and businesses, as well as funding from government institutions, helped United Way fund community programs. Now, they're struggling to meet demand.

"The federal and provincial streams that have come through ... we don't have those anymore," said Flemming. "As a result of that, it's United Way of Colchester's opportunity to find ways to be able to continue this programming and meet the needs of the most vulnerable people in our community, to ensure those gaps that we've seen previously aren't coming back due to lack of funding for these programs."

Oftentimes, these programs require more funding due to rising costs of operation, whether it be due to inflation or a higher volume of people availing of their services.

"Agencies are seeing higher numbers of people coming through their doors because of the cost associated with people trying to live their lives every day, or not having a place to live," Flemming explained. "The cost of fuel, the cost of housing, all of those things, I think, is what is causing us to see an increase in need of support."

United Way of Colchester asks that donations be made on their website, unitedwaycolchester.ca, prior to March 31.