United Way of Sarnia-Lambton

Venture Grant Announced

For Immediate Release – Wednesday, May 21, 2008------ Pam Gallant, Chair of the United Way Community Investment Committee, is pleased to announce a $30,000 Venture Grant to the Big Sisters of Sarnia-Lambton for their Big Bunch Program. 

Big Sisters provide mentoring to children across Lambton County deemed to be “at-risk” between the ages of 5 – 18 years.  “The mentoring offered by a Big Sister has a profound and positive impact on a Little Sister.  Results have shown that these girls and young women are less likely to get into trouble with police, become teen mothers, abuse drugs and/or alcohol, or drop out of school”, says Gallant.   

Big Bunch is a group mentoring program that was specifically designed to provide service to the children and adolescents currently waiting to be matched with a Big Sister.  Six girls from the waiting list are matched to three Big Sister volunteers and together they meet bi-weekly for a period of 6 months.  Girls are grouped together by age to ensure that appropriate activities are arranged and to strengthen group dynamics and relationships.  Girls can be placed in a Big Bunch group until they are matched to a one to one Big Sister on a longer term basis. 

Big Sisters had previously received Trillium funding to pilot the Big Bunch program.  “During this pilot period, they demonstrated positive outcomes on the clients and families in areas such as Skill Development, Behavioural Changes and Conflict Resolution”, says Gallant.  “The Big Bunch program allows the Agency to serve a large number of girls, who otherwise would just remain on a waiting list, on a very limited budget.”

The Venture Grant Program has approximately $100,000 available each year to fund new and innovative programs to meet a need in our community.  If your not-for-profit organization has developed a program in Lambton County to address a local community need and you meet any of the United Way’s Funding Criteria of Youth with Physical, Mental or Social Challenges, Poverty and Working Poor Families, Seniors, Medical Programs and Services or Rural Programs, please visit our website at www.theunitedway.on.ca.  Applications for Venture Grant funding are accepted on a year round basis. 

For more information, please contact:

Pam Gallant, United Way Community Investment Committee, (519) 383-7004

Dave Brown, Executive Director, United Way of Sarnia-Lambton, (519) 336-5452 Ext. 7