On Friday, November 25th, local MPP Rick Nicholls met with staff and volunteers at the Children’s Treatment Centre Foundation to celebrate the three-year, $287,000 Grow grant that the Centre received this Fall from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) in support of the Centre’s Life Links program.
“This funding will directly help local families by alleviating wait times for support services allowing for specialized one on one counselling for children and young adults. I know that many families in the Chatham-Kent area will directly benefit from the Life Links program and I’m pleased to see that OTF has invested in this initiative,” MPP Nicholls said.
The Children’s Treatment Centre’s Life Links program supports children and youth with special needs, transitioning into adulthood, with discovering and pursuing their unique interests of becoming active and contributing adult members of their community. Life Links staff assist clients with exploring employment, continued education, volunteerism, independent living and planning life after high school.
Currently, the Centre’s Life Links program is the only provider of one-on-one transition facilitation in Chatham-Kent for children and youth with special needs, and there is very limited advocacy and resources for connecting and transitioning children and youth with special needs to appropriate community resources.
This is OTF’s second significant grant in support of the Centre’s Social Work program helping to start Self Discovery in 2010.
“Since beginning Self Discovery in 2010, the program has seen tremendous growth in participation, as the demand for children and youth needing continuous transition support has risen,” said Donna Litwin-Makey, Executive Director of the Children’s Treatment Centre. “Funding from OTF will allow Life Links staff to more efficiently serve its growing caseload, older clients, and youth with diverse needs.”
The Children’s Treatment Centre and Foundation are incredibly appreciative of the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s continued support of its Social Work program, and look forward to better serving the unique needs of the Life Links caseload and the children and youth throughout Chatham-Kent.
An agency of the Government of Ontario, the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) is one of Canada’s largest granting foundations. With a budget of over $136 million, OFT awards grants to some 1,000 projects every year to build healthy and vibrant Ontario communities. www.otf.ca