PEP-Talks

Media Release

January 27, 2020

$15,000 grant from RBC Foundation awarded to North Renfrew Family Services

The North Renfrew Family Services (NRFS) has been selected by the Deep River and District Community Foundation (DRDCF) and the RBC Foundation to launch a North Renfrew oriented project, led by local youth to bring education, support, and awareness regarding mental health to youth and families between Deux Rivieres and Chalk River.

A $15,000 grant was recently awarded to NRFS by the DRDCF in association with the RBC Future Launch Community Challenge to help get the initiative off the ground.

The goal of this initiative is to help shift the power to young leaders, making a positive social or environmental change in their communities, while also enabling them to gain valuable skills and experience. As part of the RBC Future Launch Community Challenge, similar grants are contributed to youth-led projects in 150 communities across Canada.

Community Foundations of Canada CEO Andrew Chunilall described the youth leading recognized initiatives as contemporary leaders because of the immediate nature of their projects. “Young people are not future leaders—they are leading social and environmental change right now,” he said.

“We are honoured to play a role in the bold change that youth are leading across the country through this national initiative with RBC.”

Jeff Juby, Executive Director of NRFS says that “we are very excited, along with Kelly and Hudson our local youth leaders, to be able to offer this program to North Renfrew and bring about positive social change. We also acknowledge the efforts of our local community foundation to work tirelessly to acquire this grant of $15,000 to build up and make our community stronger and more resilient regarding mental health.”

The DRDCF and NRFS will be partnering to bring details about this youth-led initiative to North Renfrew at an event called “Vital Conversations” on Monday, February 24, 2020, at 6:30 pm. This event will be held at Deep River town hall and is organized to bring a wide spectrum of community partners and social service agencies together. Dianne Lemire, Publicity Committee Chair for the DRDCF, said that “we (the DRDCF) are honoured to be able to work with Community Foundations of Canada and the RBC Foundation to provide this generous grant from the RBC Foundation to the North Renfrew Family Services and local youth leaders to bring about focussed positive change within our community about mental health. We look forward to reporting back to our community about the success of the PEP-Talks youth-led project in the future.”



For more information contact:

Dianne Lemire 613.584.4874

Douglas Tennant 613.281.6967