These 3 community groups say new grant funding will help bring people in Waterloo region together

Yahoo

19-07-2025

Noah Vella of One Big Gay Disco says receiving their first grant ever "just opens up the future for us."
The disco is a queer event series Vella founded. He says it's "devoted to channeling the uplifting, liberating and revolutionary energy of disco and house music into the cultural lens landscape" of Kitchener-Waterloo.
He says he loves the music "but also the the energy that it carries."
"We work with drag artists, we work with DJs, we do creative sets. It's really just a a pulse of creative queer energy," Vella said.
One Big Gay Disco is one of 84 groups to receive grant money through the Waterloo Region Community Foundation. The grants were separated into three streams: Community, arts and racial equity.
Eric Avner, president and CEO of the Waterloo Region Community Foundation, says as Waterloo region grows, the smaller community groups that hold important neighbourhood events and offer services need support just as much as larger organizations.
"I think what we were realizing is, there's an opportunity to be a better community, one that's more sustainable and more equitable and more connected," Avner said.
"What we're trying to do with the community foundation is realizing that while we're investing in all this physical infrastructure, we have bigger city, we can be investing in a social infrastructure to enable people to connect more with each other."
The funding, Avner explained, comes from the community with donors who have helped the foundation set up an endowment fund so they can continue to provide grants to various organizations.
CBC K-W's The Morning Edition with host Craig Norris recently highlighted three of the 84 organizations that received funding, one from each stream.
One Big Gay Disco
One Big Gay Disco received funding through the arts stream. Started by Vella, the idea has always been for the disco to also serve as a fundraiser for other organizations. Vella says that hasn't always been easy and they've mostly relied on ticket sales to pay performers and people working at the events.
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"Having funding enables us to scale up the the work that we do as an organization, the fundraising that we do for local community efforts and the artists that we support, it just really opens up the possibility for us to genuinely continue this and make it a sustainable effort," he said.
He says it's particularly important because the disco has already become an event that means a lot to so many people.
"The fact that we encountered the success that we did kind of felt like a fluke because it is a distinctly queer event series and we weren't really sure if it would be received well, if we would be able to make it last," Vella said.
"But spaces like this, when they do exist and when they are functional, it's really important that they keep going because sometimes these are some of the only spaces that marginalized communities, specifically trans communities, can feel like they have a space to truly be themselves."
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Alison Neighbourhood Community Centre
The Alison Neighbourhood Community Centre offers programming to families in the Galt area of Cambridge and received grant funding through the community stream.
Jamie Hatfield is the recreation manager at Alison Neighbourhood Community Centre and said those programs include after school, camps, recreation, newcomer and leadership development.
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"This funding specifically goes towards our breakfast club program, which is one of our most in demand programs," Hatfield said.
The program runs every school day morning for students in the catchment area. The program is for students from junior kindergarten to Grade 6, but students up to Grade 12 also volunteer.
"We provide a nutritious breakfast for them and we provide opportunities for them to maybe meet and make friends with kids that would go to a different school," Hatfield said.
"There's a lot of interaction between different age groups, different schools, and our neighbourhood itself has quite a diverse makeup and there's a lot of newcomers to it. So they're getting to experience maybe connections with people they wouldn't get to meet otherwise."
The program has 30 participants, but they are hoping to expand because there's a lengthy wait list, Hatfield said.
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Taste the Culture, Bite and Enlight
Puneet Hayer is a planning committee member at Taste the Culture, Bite and Enlight, which is an event supported by the Wellesley Fall Fair and the Northeast Hope Agricultural Society.
The event is held in November and it brings together people of different culture to celebrate and introduce people to others in their own community. Hayer says people are able to showcase their culture by sharing customs, traditions and food samples.
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Hayer says the event last year was low key and grant funding will help them expand the number of people who can attend and cover the costs of the event.
"Wellesley was a very monocultural society. Over the last few years, we've seen it changing from a monoculture to a multicultural society," Hayer said.
"In order for [people] to be aware of the different cultures and also to dispel any negative stereotypes that may exist, it was identified ... that we need to know who all now calls Wellesley their home."
Hayer says the first event last year got a lot of positive response.
"People want to see this as an annual event. When they encouraged us to come forward and showcase the cultures, looking at people in their traditional attires, knowing about their customs, traditions and also tasting some food samples ... was given a very positive feedback," Hayer said.
"It's a great way to bring people together. It was a very safe and secure environment while being entertaining at the same time."
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