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Windsor’s Walker & Division roads Home Depot store holds holiday fundraiser for Windsor Residence for Young Men Customers are invited to donate $2 at the checkout between Nov 29 – Dec 16
WINDSOR, ONTARIO - The Home Depot Canada’s Walker & Division roads store (store #7228) in Windsor is fundraising for the Windsor Residence for Young Men (WRYM) this holiday season. Until December 16, customers can donate $2 at the store’s checkout in exchange for an orange paper door. All donations will help WRYM to support young men 16 - 24 years of age as they leave homelessness behind to build new lives. WRYM provides a transitional residence and individual counselling while teaching basic life skills such as hygiene, food acquisition and preparation, budgeting, social responsibility and work ethic. Less than ten percent of its funding comes from government sources. “It is thanks to generous individual and corporate donors that our work is possible,” says WRYM’s volunteer Executive Director Greg Goulin. “The Orange Door Campaign allows us to reach many more people than we could on our own. One hundred percent of the donations will go to support homeless and at-risk young men in the Windsor Essex area.” Anyone who prefers to donate online may do so at www.orangedoorproject.ca – in the website’s drop-down menu under “Fund”, be sure to select the Walker & Division roads store “ON, Windsor-7228” so that your donation benefits WRYM. You may also leave a note regarding your donation.
WRYM Ambassadors Requested for Giving Tuesday November 27 The Windsor Residence for Young Men (WRYM) is recruiting ambassadors and donors to take part in Giving Tuesday on November 27. “We are saying please join our WRYM family, if you haven’t already done so,” says WRYM’s volunteer Executive Director Greg Goulin. “You can donate as you are able or be a WRYM Ambassador and share our messages!”
Giving Tuesday is a global movement for giving and volunteering that takes place worldwide each year, and is called the “opening day of the giving season”! It has become an important time for charities such as WRYM to raise the funds needed to carry on their programs. Since it began operations in 2012, WRYM has depended on such community generosity. The Windsor Residence for Young Men helps an average of 50 young residents each year to leave homelessness behind and build new lives. WRYM provides a supportive functional family for young men aged 16-24 years who are in desperate need of support. Often, WRYM is the only family “our guys” have ever known — with a staff of women and men in the roles of aunts, uncles or older siblings who deliver individual counselling and teach basic life skills.
WRYM’s program is efficient and effective. We do not duplicate the work of other agencies. Instead, we integrate our guys into the community and its resources to help them become active citizens. Our annual program budget is $400,000 (Canadian). Divided by an average of 50 residents assisted each year, the yearly cost per resident is $8,000. “We will be thanking our old friends and making new ones,” says Goulin. “We are respectfully asking that you help us achieve our 2018 Giving Tuesday fundraising goal of $16,000 – that’s the yearly cost of assisting two young men to leave homelessness behind and build new lives.” Goulin is inviting supporters and donors to visit WRYM on Facebook at www.facebook.com/windsorresidenceforyoungmen, or to visit the website at www.wrym.ca. He can also be contacted directly through e-mail greggoulin@cogeco.net or telephone (519) 981-9917. Updates on WRYM’s “giving season” progress will be provided on Facebook and at an Applebee’s Flapjack Fundraiser Breakfast to be hosted by Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar, 2250 Division Road (at Walker) in Windsor on Saturday December 1, from 8:00 a.m. to 10.a.m. Tickets are $15 and may be purchased in advance by calling (519) 981-9917 or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/windsorresidenceforyoungmen. Until the Windsor Residence for Young Men opened its doors in October 2012, Windsor/Essex had no transitional housing or life skills program for homeless male youth. Concerned citizens began working to raise community support and funding in the year 2000, but it would be another 12 years before WRYM was able to purchase and renovate a suitable residence. WRYM is an effective operation that depends on community support to fulfill its mission. Green Shield Canada Supports Windsor Residence for Young Men  Photo - Wednesday, October 24 - Celebrating a successful four-year association are (L-R) WRYM Executive Director (pro bono) Greg Goulin, GSC Chief Human Resources Officer Mila Lucio, WRYM President Susan Freeman, GSC President & CEO Zahid Salman, and GSC VP of Planning & Business Solutions Cathy Morrison. Green Shield Canada (GSC) has formally presented the Windsor Residence for Young Men (WRYM) with the final cheque of four yearly donations, bringing the total amount funded by GSC to $230,736. As with the previous cheques, the 2018 payment, totalling $57,684, supports WRYM’s Mental Health Navigation Program.
WRYM assists 50 young men each year to leave homelessness behind to build new lives. WRYM delivers individual counselling and teaches basic life skills such as hygiene, food acquisition and preparation, budgeting, social responsibility and work ethic. By teaching life skills, WRYM provides “our guys” with the independence necessary to walk away from abusive situations. WRYM does not duplicate existing community services. Rather, it teaches young men how to access existing services in our community so that they can build new lives. Many have serious mental health challenges, and the WRYM Mental Health Navigation Program teaches them how to access vital mental health services. Started in Windsor in 1957, GSC is Canada's only national not-for-profit health and dental benefits specialist, offering affordable group and individual programs. GSC is also active in funding community charitable causes. The GSC Community Giving Program (CGP) is an annual granting initiative that provide financial and organizational development support to Canadian registered charitable, not-profit, social enterprise organizations that deliver frontline health care to uninsured and underinsured people across Canada. The CGP Program supports organizations that focus on oral health care, vision care, prescription drugs, disease management, mental health counselling, and have an aspect of social service navigation to help address the whole person, including housing support, healthy food programs, education, job training. “We really believe in giving back to our community and supporting the great causes that exist here locally,” says GSC Chief Human Resources Officer Mila Lucio. “Certainly, the Windsor Residence for Young Men is one of those charities that we really want to be supporting strongly.” “On behalf of the Windsor Residence for Young Men, I would like to thank Green Shield Canada for their longstanding support of our program,” says WRYM President Susan Freeman. “Mental Health issues are common in our community and this money will go a long way toward helping young men to deal with these issues.” In 2012, the Windsor Residence for Young Men began operations on the principle that the most effective way to integrate young men into the community was to assist them in accessing the community services specific to their needs. Collaboration with other agencies also allows WRYM to make the best possible use of funding dollars. |
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December 2020
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