Impact of Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Resilient Communities Grant

Over the last 9 months, with generous support from OTF Resilient Communities Fund we have been working on building a more inclusive Seasons Centre for Grieving Children to better support our communities’ on their grief journey.

Our Team (board, volunteer, and staff members) recently participated in a series of training modules with the Safe Spaces approach to better serve the 2S-LGBTQ+ members of our community, to ensure positive interactions and greater access to services. We are developing a strategy and plan to implement our recent Multicultural and Diversity/Equity/Inclusivity Audit.

We were pleasantly surprised that there were many barriers to access that we were in tune with and others unintended barriers we were not conscious of but will adjust accordingly. We have been working to expand our minds and reach out to the various communities and evolve our service delivery to be sensitive to their grieving traditions and teachings within their culture. We are changing our policies and intake forms to reflect our new knowledge and our ever-evolving community.

We’re thankful for this funding that have given us this opportunity to connect with groups like: Empower Simcoe, Women & Children’s Shelter of Barrie, Cody’s House, Hospice Georgian Bay, BANAC, Whitefish River First Nation, Dnaagdawanmag Binnoojiiyag  (DBCFS), Rama First Nations, Enaahtig Healing Lodge and Learning Centre.

Moving forward we are working to continue creating greater awareness for the needs of all children and families who are grieving, creating opportunities to involve our supporters, and developing a 3-year Strategic Plan with an eye towards collaborating/partnering with other service providers while becoming more accessible to the diverse needs of within our community. As always, Seasons Centre is committed to breaking down unintended barriers of access to our programming and will continue to evolve and grow.