Equity is not a buzzword for me. As a queer man, I've been part of the fight for equity and authentic inclusion for LGBTQ+ people for over three decades. On the personal level, inequity negatively affects access, opportunity, social mobility, health, wellbeing, and more. On the social and community level, inequity is seen in disparate health outcomes, climate resilience, development, and food access. The list could easily go on. 

Equity is about first understanding that not everyone is on a level playing field and then doing the work to level the playing field. That thread of "Equity in Action" runs through every story in this month's Community Catalyst. We provide examples of the sustained, deliberate work of making equity more attainable: a door that is never the wrong one, a sport a family can actually afford, a campus where services come to the person instead of the other way around.

In this issue, you'll read about Denise Springett of CNIB, who brings more than twenty years of lived experience as a blind person to her work connecting local dollars to local needs. The "no wrong door" approach shared by CNIB, Vision Loss Rehabilitation Canada, and Deaf-Blind Community Services means a person can show up at any of the three and be connected to the right support. A Community Foundation grant recently brought CNIB's "Come to Work" program to Kingston, where we learned that the demand for employment support here comes largely from people well into their careers who are now adjusting to sight loss.

You'll meet the Clayton family, who turned their love of hockey, and their memories of the late Larry Clayton's years coaching Kingston minor hockey, into the Larry Clayton Endowment Fund. Because the cost of registration and equipment keeps many kids out of the game, grants from the fund support the Grassroots Hockey Project, helping local children get on the ice who otherwise couldn't.

You'll also hear from Charles Robertson, who established the Valerie Robertson Women in Theatre Fund in 2017 to honour his mother, who helped found Domino Theatre, and spent her life as a teacher and a fierce advocate for women in theatre. As an endowment, the fund grants every year, supporting projects like Theatre Kingston's Friends Fest and H'art Centre, which creates theatre with people with disabilities. A passionate, and possibly insufferable, theatre kid during my own youth, I can tell you Charles is right about what theatre gives young people: confidence, so they can do whatever they want

You'll also visit Providence Village, where fourteen organizations work side by side on the former Motherhouse grounds of the Sisters of Providence. What struck me in that story is Laurie French's use of "intentionality": complementary organizations brought together on purpose, and now collaborating naturally, from shared volunteers to seniors' programs in a first-ever physical space. This is where the magic happens.

And at this month's Speaker Series breakfast, "How Social Prescribing is Redefining What 'Health' Means", gave us two more stories of equity in practice. Tarek Hussein made the case that 80% of health outcomes come from social needs, and Wendy Vuyk showed what it looks like when physicians connect patients directly to community programs. As Wendy put it, "Social connection is a muscle we stopped exercising, and we need to exercise it again." 

What strikes me most about these stories is that equity is never abstract. It looks like a freezer, a gym floor, a phone setting, a rehearsal room, or a social prescribing referral. It looks like someone deciding that another person's chance to participate is worth investing in. It looks like us deciding that the community we seek to live in reflects the value that everyone deserves the opportunity to belong and thrive.

As always, thank you for your care and support for the work of the Community Foundation.

Stacy 

P.S. Our Speakers Series continues on November 25 with "ACEs and Resilience: Where Are We Now?". I hope you can join us.

Next in Our Speaker Series:

ACEs and Resilience: Where Are We Now?

In 2019, the Community Foundation for Kingston & Area hosted a speaker series titled ACEs Aren't a Wildcard to spark community dialogue and action around the lifelong impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) on health and wellbeing. The event served as a catalyst for deeper local collaboration and led to the formation of the ACEs & Resilience Coalition of KFL&A (ARC).

On Wednesday, November 25, we invite you to join us for an engaging panel discussion as we reflect on how our community has responded to early adversity over the past seven years and explore the progress made in fostering resilience among children, youth, and families across KFL&A.

Our panelists will share insights gained over the years working collectively to prevent early adversity, mitigate its impacts, and build resiliency in our region.



Together, we'll examine what we've learned, celebrate collective achievements, and consider the work that still lies ahead.

The Youth Investment Fund puts $25,000 behind

youth-identified priorities in 2026

What happens when young people decide where the funding goes? The Youth Investment Fund is answering that question.

The Youth Investment Fund (YIF) is part of the Unnamed Youth Project (UYP), a community-wide initiative focusing on enhancing community opportunities for youth, strengthening family support systems and fostering youth voice and leadership. Guided by the Regional Youth Advisory Circle (YAC), and funded by the Community Foundation, the fund focuses on supporting community-based programs and initiatives that reflect the priorities identified by local youth.

A total of $25,000 in funding is available in 2026 to support initiatives that respond to the needs, interests, and priorities shared by young people across Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington.

That means the needs, interests, and ideas of local young people aren't just heard. They're funded.

Young people have ideas, perspectives, and solutions that can make a real difference in our community. The Youth Investment Fund is helping turn those ideas into action, creating opportunities for young people to help shape the communities they call home. When youth set the priorities and the community backs them with real funding, everyone's future gets better.

Have an idea or an initiative that supports local youth?



Explore the Youth Investment Fund and learn how to apply:

Leadership Looks Like You:

The John Gerretsen Youth Leadership Award

Up to $4,000 to help young people in

Kingston and the Islands grow as leaders

When you think of a leader, who comes to mind? Someone giving a speech? Leading a team? Making big decisions?

The truth is, leadership comes in many forms, and a young person you know might already be a leader without even realizing it. Helping a friend through a tough time. Tutoring or mentoring someone who needs support. Standing up for what they believe in. Showing kindness, compassion, and including others.

Leadership isn't always about being the loudest voice in the room. Sometimes, it's about being the person who listens, supports, encourages, and inspires others.

The John Gerretsen Youth Leadership Award, established at the Community Foundation for Kingston & Area in recognition of Mr. Gerretsen's long-time service to Kingston and the Islands, has been celebrating young people who make a difference in their own unique ways. In partnership with Kingston Community Health Centres' Pathways to Education program, the award provides up to $4,000 in annual funding to help eligible youth develop their leadership skills through courses, camps, conferences, and other leadership-building experiences.

Students in Grades 9 to 12, or those who graduated or left secondary school within the past 12 months, who reside within the boundaries of Kingston and the Islands are eligible. Decisions are made by a committee of representatives from Pathways to Education and the Community Foundation.

Applications open October 30 and close November 27! You don't need a title to be a leader. You just need the willingness to make a difference.



Because leadership looks different on everyone. Leadership looks like YOU.

Skates, Community, and Legacy:

The Larry Clayton Endowment Fund

For the Clayton family, hockey has always been more than a game. It was where Larry Clayton spent countless hours coaching his sons and their teammates, and where many of their strongest family memories were made. After Larry died in 2010, his wife Diane and sons Chris and Tom wanted to honour both his love of the sport and his deep commitment to young people. The result is the Larry Clayton Endowment Fund, held at the Community Foundation for Kingston & Area, which supports minor hockey and helps more children get on the ice.

The fund did not appear overnight. The family first tried directing their giving through another charity but found that the demands of fundraising and administration did not fit their busy lives. “We thought it would be better to put the money toward a structured organization that had people in place to run it and look after its day to day,” Diane explains. The Community Foundation offered that structure and, just as importantly, a way to connect their fund with programs that match their goals.

Hockey was the obvious focus. Chris and Tom both played at a high level, and Larry coached Kingston minor hockey for several years when they were younger. The family knows how expensive the sport can be, from equipment to registration fees. “We wanted to donate to minor hockey because the cost to sign up and play is very high,” Tom says. Recently, with help from Foundation staff, grants from the fund have supported the Grassroots Hockey Project, helping local kids access the sport their dad loved so much.



Philanthropy reflects the way Larry lived. He spent more than thirty years working in banking and financial services, was well known in the community, and volunteered through programs like Junior Achievement. “He was very involved in the community through his work,” Diane recalls. For his sons, giving back in his name feels natural. “Dad did very well in his career and put us in a position to give back,” Tom says. “We wanted to honour his name, and this fund lets us keep helping kids, just like he always did.”

No Wrong Door:

How CNIB and Community Funding Open Kingston to Life with Sight Loss

Denise Springett has a job that requires her to know "what is happening in every nook and cranny in each unique local community." As a Philanthropy Officer with CNIB's Ontario team, she works with community foundations across the province, connecting local dollars to local needs. CNIB has been part of her life since she was seven, and she brings more than twenty years of lived experience as a blind person to the role.

That lived experience shapes how she explains the work. Since 2018, CNIB, Vision Loss Rehabilitation Canada, and Deaf-Blind Community Services have operated as three separate organizations, but a training developed across all three, called No Wrong Door, means a person can show up at any of them and be connected to the right support. Safety concerns are prioritized: in Kingston, high-priority clients are contacted within 72 hours, and the local client care navigator has 48 hours to respond.

One-on-one assistive technology training is available through Vision Loss Rehabilitation completely free, because it's covered by OHIP. Trainers, most of whom have lived experience of sight loss, go at the client's pace, whether that's adjusting a few phone settings in a single session or six to eight hours over several weeks.

Denise understands the effort behind that training firsthand. Using her remaining vision, she says, is "kind of like trying to do a 200-pound deadlift with your pinky. I suppose in theory, it's possible. But you're probably going to hurt yourself."

The Community Foundation for Kingston & Area recently supported CNIB's Come to Work program, which helps people adjusting to sight loss navigate employment. Because of the grant, a CNIB staff member was able to travel from his home base in London, Ontario, to Kingston for an employer networking event, connecting with local businesses interested in accessible hiring practices.

The event taught CNIB something unexpected: the demand in Kingston isn't primarily younger workers. It's the older cohort, people who have been in their careers for years and are now adjusting to sight loss, needing support with career transition, workplace accommodations, or next steps.



"Having that trust is a really important part of being able to provide meaningful services," Denise says of CNIB's local peer support. When people trust the person running the coffee chat, they're far more comfortable saying, hey, I'm really struggling right now. Can you help me get connected?

More Than a Hub:

Providence Village Builds a New Model for

Community Care

On 30 acres in the heart of Kingston, something unusual is taking shape. Providence Village, led by President & CEO Laurie French since 2022, is transforming the former Motherhouse of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul into a community of care where health, social services, and community organizations work side by side on a shared campus.

When French arrived, the concept was developed but little had been rolled out. Her early days were spent operating the Motherhouse for the 65Sisters then in residence, down to 45 today. Since then, she has hired a team, built the infrastructure, and welcomed 14 subtenant organizations, with three more subleases being finalized this fall.

"A lot of people would say, oh, it's a community hub, you rent out space to organizations," French explains. "But the Village is so much more than that. It's the intentionality of how we bring complementary organizations together, and then how they actually work together."

That intention shows up in practice. A Subtenant Partnership Table brings organizations together regularly, and collaborations are emerging naturally. Organizations partner on workshops and events, share volunteers and resources. The Alzheimer Society of Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington has delivered education and training for Village staff. The Council on Aging now offers seniors' programs in its first-ever physical space, and H’art Centre transformed a former social area used by the Sisters into music, art, and dance studios where they run varied programming for their participants.

"There hasn't been one of those [Subtenant Partnership Table] meetings where new connections were not made.  Where somebody hasn't said something like, ‘Oh, you do art therapy? That would be great for our clients or participants over here at another subtenant organization’," French says.

The Village's reach extends across the whole property. Providence Care’s AB Smith Homestead House sits on subleased land, and Providence Care is building their new Providence Manor long-term care home, which will include a YMCA daycare in the residence. Affordable housing, a part of the Sisters' original vision for the Village, is now exploring with a potential partner interested in a parcel of land on the property.

For Cory Angeletti-Szasz, the Village's Communications Consultant, the difference is the community itself. "It's all about the community that's being built here, and the collaboration and the connection," she says. "It's really starting to happen naturally."

An open house in early October welcomed the public to see what's already at the Village, and to imagine what could be. As the Sisters' footprint gradually shrinks, the Village will keep growing around them, exactly as they hoped.

French announced her retirement earlier this month, effective at the end of December 2026. The Board has begun recruiting her successor, and she will remain in the role until a new leader is in place.



"Serving as President & CEO of Providence Village has been the honour of my career," French says. "I will leave this role with enormous confidence in the Providence Village team and what they will continue to accomplish for the community."

A Life in the Theatre, Remembered Forever:

The Valerie Robertson Women in Theatre Fund

When Charles Robertson set out to honour his late mother, he knew exactly how she would have felt about having her name on a fund at the Community Foundation for Kingston & Area.

"Being an actress, I knew she would be in love with her name," he said with a laugh. "That's not my personality, but I know that's her personality."

Valerie Robertson came to Kingston from Newcastle, England, after marrying Charles's father, a Kingston-born actor she met while both were working in repertory theatre. He had gone to England to try his luck on the stage, winning Best Actor in Canada along the way, and was later offered a job at Stratford. But with a young family, he came home instead, and together with a group of British expats, the couple helped found Domino Theatre. Valerie arrived wary of Canada, having been told the houses had tin roofs and wolves wandered the streets.

While her husband pursued mainstream theatre, Valerie made her mark as a teacher. She worked with kids who had few opportunities, ran programs in prisons, and was a fierce advocate for women. Rosemary Doyle of Theatre Kingston was among her students.

"My mom was very into women's politics and women actors, and helped a lot of girls who went on to do big things," Charles said. "I thought it would be nice to get her name out there."

Established in 2017, the Valerie Robertson Women in Theatre Fund supports arts and culture with a focus on theatre projects, especially those encouraging young women's participation and growth. As an endowment, it grants every year in perpetuity. To date it has granted roughly $10,000 to theatre projects across the region, including Theatre Kingston's Friends Fest, the Spire Transformation Project, H'art Centre, which creates theatre with people with disabilities, and North Frontenac Little Theatre.

For Charles, a playwright and longtime theatre educator himself, the fund extends his mother's influence to a new generation. Teaching young performers at Bottle Tree Productions, he saw firsthand what theatre gives young people.

"We joked that we weren't making many actors, but we certainly were making a lot of engineers," he said. "Kids would get confidence, so they could do whatever they wanted."

Theatre is a tough world, he acknowledges, and funding is hard to come by. That's what makes an endowment like this one meaningful to him: it keeps granting, year after year, long after the curtain falls

.

"I thought that would be nice for my mom," he said. "Just extending."

As we near the end of the year it's a good opportunity to take a look at the causes that are important to you and make sure your giving is in line with your values and your objectives. Have you made all the gifts you intended this year? Have you reviewed your charitable priorities? Have you collected all your donation receipts? Remember that gifts need to be made by December 31 to be eligible for a charitable tax receipt for the current tax year.

You might also want to look at some tax wise giving options (e.g. donating appreciated securities), or use this time to review your estate plans and consider what legacy you'd like to leave in our community. Your support could be aimed at meeting the needs of our community today or at building up resources for future generations. Thoughtful year end planning can go a long way to maximising the impact of your generosity and ensuring that Kingston and the area are strengthened for years to come.

Reach out to our Donor Experience Officer, Amanda Amesse, to review your options or get any answers to the questions you have.

Amanda Amesse, 613-546-9696 ext. 104

giving@cfka.org