Supported Charities
Freedom Centre
The Freedom Centre is committed to serving the needs of Canadian veterans. We endeavor to accept referrals from various agencies and organizations across Canada. All the veterans living at the Freedom Centre will have served in the Canadian Armed Forces. The Freedom Centre serves the needs of veterans from the Canadian Armed Forces and retired or past members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
From teenagers to families, to homeless, the Freedom Centre, not only provides nourishment, but also a point of connection, compassion and friendship. With the support of many incredible volunteers we are doing our part to meet people where they are and offer them a sense of community.House of Friendship
House of Friendship is a Waterloo Region-based nonprofit organization that provides food, housing, addiction treatment and neighbourhood support to individuals and families. With the tremendous support of this community, we help more than 42,000 individuals each year. Please walk with us as we respond with compassion to those who need help. Let’s make Waterloo Region a place where everyone can belong and thrive!
Anishnabeg Outreach
At Anishnabeg Outreach our Centre of Healing continues to expand as a hub of wrap-around services that offer support for Indigenous peoples from birth to death. This is done through partnerships, alliances, and the building of processes and programs that are centered around healing. Below are some of our current programs and services. The Spirit Bundles program provides essential items to local Indigenous families during the pandemic. We called these spirit bundles because they aim to help Indigenous people maintain spirit during these challenging times.
Bridges to Belonging
Vision: Communities where people of all abilities belong and are connected through meaningful relationships.
Mission: We engage with you to be empowered and express your gifts, together with your loved ones, to build a network of support that honours your choices for the life you want in the Waterloo Region.
Purpose: To affirm the inherent dignity and worth of people living with disabilities and to walk with them to overcome isolation, live free of barriers to inclusion and experience belonging
Community Support Connections (Meals on Wheels)
Community Support Connections provides life-changing services for our clients, allowing many people to stay in the comfort of their homes. We help give them the independence and dignity we all want in life. The services we offer are customized to a diverse client group that includes caregivers, older adults, people with diverse abilities, and anyone in between.
Community Support Connections offers services under four areas: Nutrition, Physical Health, Social Wellbeing, and Help at Home.
Reception House
Reception House Waterloo Region specializes in supporting refugees and newcomers in Canada, specifically in Waterloo Region, with tailored programs and services designed to aid in their resettlement and integration into the local community. Since 1987, Reception House Waterloo Region helps our clients become established in their new community.
Santa To Seniors
Region of Waterloo Paramedic Services’ mission has always been to find those seniors who have little or no family contact or have recently lost their spouse or partner and fulfill their personalized Christmas wish lists. Delivered by uniformed paramedics, complete with Santa, deliver gifts and cheer in their festive ambulance.
Porchlight
In 1940 a group of community members came together to support local families who suffered loss of employment and the loss of family members as a result of WWII.
The group knit socks, produced medical bandages, assisted families with food and urgent living costs and provided counselling for soldiers returning from war. The counselling took many forms: helping strengthen re-united families; supporting soldiers as they faced post experience trauma; walking with soldiers as they found meaningful employment.
The services grew and, in 1961, Family Counselling Centre (our name at the time) incorporated as a non-profit agency and acquired charitable status in 1967. Founding members continued their contribution to the community by extending their reach and establishing the Cambridge Kin Club and the United Way of Cambridge and North Dumfries. In October of 2022, we rebranded to Porchlight Counselling and Addiction Services, renewing our long-standing commitment to Cambridge and North Dumfries.
Hummingbird Centre For Hope
Hummingbird Centre for Hope (HCH) was established in 2012 to meet the unique and evolving needs of individuals who lose their spouse or partner at a young age, and encounter themselves shouldering the responsibility of raising a child or children as a widowed parent. In an environment of hope and understanding, HCH provides life long support to widowed parents with dependent children to meet their emotional, social, financial and spiritual needs as their grief may manifest in different ways throughout the life journey. HCH provides tools, knowledge, strength and courage to widowed parents so that they can create a renewed sense of self and rebuild the lives and dreams of their young families.
YW Kitchener-Waterloo
YW Kitchener-Waterloo is dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by providing services and programs that support physical and mental wellbeing and economic choice and independence.
We envision an inclusive and equitable world where women are empowered to choose change.
Community Care Concepts
Meals On Wheels supplies hot and frozen meals for a minimal fee to residents to help them live independently in their own homes. This can be short or long term.
Meals on Wheels are delivered by volunteers that also provide friendly contact and a security check to clients who are homebound. Meals will not just be left at your door for food safety reasons. If we have not been notified that you will not require a meal and there is no answer we will try to get in touch with you or an emergency contact to ensure that everything is all right.
CMHA
CMHA Ontario achieves its mission by being a leader in the evolution of Ontario’s mental health and addictions system. We contribute our knowledge, resources and skills to provincial policy development and implementation. We promote mental health in collaboration with others. We further equitable access to mental health services and champion the reduction of mental health disparities. And we serve our branches in building their governance and leadership capacities.
Sanguen Health Centre
Our Mission is to meet the needs of those in Waterloo Region and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph living with or at risk for Hepatitis C through the provision of education, outreach, support, and comprehensive, expert medical care.
Sanguen continues to provide Hepatitis C testing, treatment, support, outreach, and education in both Waterloo Region and Guelph-Wellington. Our team partners with other agencies and groups, whenever possible, to enhance our ability to work with patients and clients who have, or who are at-risk of, Hepatitis C.
Karis Disability Services (Christian Horizons)
As a non-profit, developmental services organization, Christian Horizons helps people experiencing disabilities accomplish their goals and thrive in communities where their God-given gifts are valued and respected.
Soup Kitchen | Working Center
St. John’s Kitchen is a gathering place for people in downtown Kitchener. Its diverse community includes many people who are experiencing homelessness, at risk of homelessness, or street involved. For over 30 years, people have come to St. John’s Kitchen to be with others, have conversation, prepare a daily meal and share it together, and access a variety of supports and resources. It’s a place where people come together in the spirit of respect and mutual support.
Going Mobile KW
Going Mobile KW is a volunteer community outreach group providing support to unsheltered people in Kitchener-Waterloo (KW) and those in need who are battling hunger. Our support includes the nightly delivery of a nutritional meal, warmth, kindness, and a caring ear with dignity and without discrimination or judgement.
Food is individually packaged and served on a low key level in order to create a comfort zone without pressure. Many of our outreach group members are unsheltered or the loved one of those we serve. Safe Haven Youth Services
Starling Community Services
Safe Haven Youth Services provides crisis, respite and life launch services to youth between the ages of 12 and up to their 18th birthday living in Waterloo Region.
Based on individual needs and eligibility, supports are also available for family reunification and for securing sustainable housing in the community. Safe Haven Youth Services strives to provide every youth with the resources and support necessary to address their immediate crisis and to build the skills required to prevent reoccurrence.
Our stockings are prepared and distributed to each charity in early December.
If you are in need of support this Christmas, please reach out to one of the organizations that we work with.