We are a 122 year old Children’s Society. Since 1894, we have been protecting children from abuse and neglect and keeping families in crisis together. We operate two charitable funds – the Enrichment Fund and the Futures Fund.

FUTURES FUND

The Futures Fund helps youth in the care of our Children’s Aid Society.  These are youth who have grown up in foster care and who were  victims of child abuse or neglect. Many don’t have a family to support them. They have graduated high school and are aging out of our care.

The Fund provides bursaries for college or university. The Government funding that these youth receive simply is not enough to cover the true costs of college or university. Only our bursary program can make the difference. We rely on donations to support the Fund. These are the most disadvantaged youth in the entire country and their prospects for success are not high. Research in Canada and the US show that as they transition into adulthood they face significantly higher rates of Homelessness, Mental illness, Substance abuse, Being on welfare, Being unemployed or underemployed and more. The answer is education. A college or university education will give them the chance to start a career, put down roots, gain success and, hopefully, take their place as part of our society.

This Fund is more than a local bursary project. What happens here will have an impact all across Canada.

The reason is that Kingston is ground-zero for violence against children in Canada. Statistics Canada reported in January, 2015 that Kingston has the third highest rate of child and youth victims of family violence in the country. The rate was twice as high as Toronto or Vancouver. This is the frontline of youth in care in Canada.

ENRICHMENT FUND

One of the biggest challenges these families face is Summer. Many of the children and youth we serve have never been to Summer Camp. Because of the barriers they face, some never will. They need to be in the sunshine, getting exercise and being with other children exploring nature and having fun. They won’t get that kind of Summer without support from people and organizations like you. Our government funding doesn’t cover Summer Camp for these kids, who are receiving our services but who are not in our care. We rely on donors like you to make our Summer Camp program work. We’ll use your donations to send kids to camps all across KFL&A. Last year, we sent more than 60 kids to camp. If we had the money we could have sent many more, and for longer.

We serve one of the most disadvantaged groups of children in our community. Summer camp isn’t just a nice-to-have activity; it’s an essential part of their development. Everyone knows that in Canada, the majority of kids don’t get the physical activity that they need each day. But what most people don’t know is that things like physical activity are especially critical to children who have been exposed to abuse and neglect. According to a 2007 study young adults who experienced abuse and neglect as children had high rates of obesity and limited physical activity. A third had a significant health problem limiting their activities by the time they became adults. Our conclusion is that of all the children in our community the kids we serve need summer camp more than anyone else.