CAA comes to assistance of local charities
Foundation of Resources for Teens, Food4Kids each get $10,000 donation
Two Niagara charities are getting a big lift from CAA Niagara, through its 2020 Community Boost funding.
After receiving more than 50 applications, the two – Food4Kids Niagara and the Foundation of Resources for Teens (FORT) — were selected.
Each will receive a one-time $10,000 donation plus promotional help, volunteer assistance and other support. CAA will also use the groups’ decals on two of its vehicles this summer for further promotion.
Both charities support children and youths, and their services are even more vital during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Every weekend, Food4Kids volunteers provide packs of healthy food for kids aged four to 14 who would otherwise have limited access to good meals.
Packages are delivered to schools on Fridays and more than 1,500 children in Niagara are served.
Executive director Amber
Hughes said “our families struggle at the best of times, and the last thing we want is for kids to be worrying about where their next meal will come from.”
Foundation of Resources for Teens, meanwhile, offers free recreational programs and resource services to more than 10,000 youths in west Niagara.
Citing teens’ increased anxiety and depression during the pandemic, FORT executive director Beth Shaw said “this donation will go directly to continuing our free mental health counselling to ensure that every youth receives the help they need.”
Meanwhile, CAA Niagara is offering volunteer help to any Niagara charity in delivering supplies and food to people in need.
It has extended that offer to members, to use one of their emergency roadside assistance calls for curbside pickup of prepaid groceries or other essential supplies.
Old police office well-suited to new business days: Owners
It wasn’t planned this way, but a Niagara company that rents out office space might have what it takes to help other small companies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2017, Accel North bought the six-storey office tower at 110 James St. in St. Catharines, formerly headquarters for Niagara Regional Police.
It renovated it and originally wanted to use it as a tech accelerator to house 20 or so startup companies.
With most of the public funding going to established tech centres like Waterloo and Toronto, it switched gears.
In October, it soft-launched as a “co-work entrepreneurial acceleration space for all businesses,” said business manager Chris Martin.
With tech firm Clickback filling the top floor, in the rest “we have meeting spaces or event spaces they can rent out for the day or the week or month, or what have you,” said Martin. Then COVID-19 happened. With many businesses forced to order employees to work from home, Martin figures they are rethinking how they might operate post-pandemic.
“That’s the kind of trend we’re expecting to see with a bunch of other companies, as they get
back to running their businesses more normally but not necessarily needing the same kind of real estate footprint,” he said.
“They’ve found the business has been able to run productively anyway, even remotely.”
The James Street building has desks, a reception area, a kitchen, cubicles, offices and larger rooms for events or staff meetings. People can work isolated if they want and it’s also secure, Martin said, with three or four levels of security to reach the offices.
With roughly 2,700 square metres (30,000 square feet) of available space, about half of the building is filled.
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