In the Community

CFUW St. John’s Community Outreach Projects

Scholarships for women attending our local university and colleges have been the main focus of CFUW St. John’s Club donations, over the years. This has been hugely valued by our members and the deserving recipients. We’ve also supported other projects in the community, such as “New Beginnings Baskets” for women leaving a shelter, community meals to feed the needy, food bank support for our university students, to name a few. Over time, some of these outreach community projects became a special part of what our club was pleased to support. CFUW St. John’s is proud of the continuous work of our Outreach Committee over the years.

Club funds come from a once a year fundraiser, we refer to as the Great Big Book Sale! It is an amazing effort by a large portion of our club members. It takes about a month from start to finish, collecting and sorting into categories, then displaying for public viewing. We have a large following in the community, both those donating good quality books and returning to purchase books. Our club is known in the community as the Book Sale Women!!! Over time, our proceeds have been growing annually. This has led to CFUW St. John’s Club finding more dollars for Community Outreach projects.

The Outreach Committee was established in 2016, although some outreach support in the community had already been happening, without a formalized committee. In that period of time from 2016 to now 2024, we have supported dozens of groups in need. Our focus is usually on women and girls, though often it expands beyond that to children and families. The organizations we support are not for profit groups who are trying to meet unique needs in the community. These organizations are usually run by a small number of paid professionals and a larger number of dedicated volunteers.

The needs of the community are forever changing and expanding. Our members seek to connect with organizations annually to discern what current needs and goals they seek to meet. We’re often welcomed into their premises and given an inside look at their accomplishments, current needs and goals. Sometimes these leaders in the community are also invited to present to our monthly club meeting, to increase awareness of their work among our members.

In the 2016 Annual Report for CFUW St. John’s, the newly formed Outreach Committee had financially supported 25 community groups, both that year and in the few years leading up to then. The funding could be as small as $100 towards the start of a project, up to $1500 towards a broader approach to starting or continuing a project. Some examples of these groups would include the Memorial University Food Bank, Kiwanis Music Festival, New beginnings Baskets for a women’s shelter, Thrive (a youth 14 – 29 at risk initiative), Teachers on Wheels, Home Again Furniture Bank, NL Sexual Assault Crisis and Prevention Centre, Association for New Canadians, and others.

This year, 2023-2024, members voted to increase our outreach budget, due to both strong results in our annual book sale and continuous growing needs in our community. Our five member committee is challenged to meet as many diverse needs as possible. We’re reviewing needs of past community groups and weighing the current needs of groups new to us. Often our donations are just the impetus these groups need to prove them resourceful and capable of meeting community needs to get funding on a larger scale.

Our longest standing project and one we’re extremely proud of, is the New Beginnings Baskets for Iris Kirby House. Iris Kirby House is a shelter for women who are victims of domestic violence and their children. When residents leave the shelter to live in their new homes, they are given New Beginnings Baskets prepared by CFUW St.John`s.

We deliver two laundry size baskets a month and occasionally are asked to provide the same for some seniors at other locations. It includes kitchen, bathroom and personal care items needed to get through the early days in a new place. Included items are mugs, teabags, sugar, milk, tea towels, dishcloths, bathroom towels, soap, toilet paper, shampoo, cleaners, laundry detergent, broom and dustpan, paring knife, spatula, vegetable peeler, can opener and many more items. In today’s economy we estimate the value to be close to $200, much higher than when the project began more than ten years ago!! Many of our members donate some of these new items or give an annual cash donation to the project. One of our members houses the products and keeps an inventory of needs. A group of us help with the savvy shopping, then gather to prepare six baskets at a time. Many hands make light work!!

The feedback we’ve received tells us the baskets are truly appreciated by the women who receive them. It gives them a good start-up package of household goods, both consumable and non-consumable. This project was started by the local chapter of IODE more than a decade ago. At first we worked with the IODE, but with their membership dwindling, we agreed to take over the project. Since then we’ve prepared and delivered more than 320 baskets!!! That’s a lot of households helped with their own “New Beginning”.

Community Centers in our area have provided much needed support to families. The Kettle Is On program at MacMarron Community Centre is offered twice a month at lunch time. They serve a home cooked meal and promote healthy eating and wellness. They offer a Friendship Club twice a month. Adults get together to play cards, socialize, enjoy some snacks and chat in a supportive environment. Many of the people who avail of these services are at home moms and seniors. The Virginia Park Community Centre started a Food Pantry last year. This is a new project based on food insecurity in the community. We’ve supported these programs in recent years.