$41,000 SUPPORTS FUNDRAISING EFFORTS FOR DUGALD PLACE

Springfield Heritage Housing Inc. (SHHI) has successfully achieved $41,000 in funding from the Government of Canada’s Investment Readiness Program (IRP) to support the development of a fundraising campaign for the Dugald Place Assisted Living Residence.  

“This grant is an important first step in our goal to increase housing opportunities in the municipality” said Mayor Tiffany Fell.  “Springfield Heritage Housing was incorporated just a few months ago and the awarding of this funding is a strong endorsement of the confidence other levels of government, our Council and our community have in this vision.”

“A grant of this magnitude is extremely important in our efforts to raise the necessary funds to build Dugald Place,” said Lesley Thomson, Chair of SHHI.  The Velnes Group has been hired to develop a feasibility study (necessary to establish a fundraising goal) and to create the ‘Case for Support’ document which will tell the Dugald Place story to potential donors and investors.  

Dugald Place Assisted Living Residence is planned as a 50-unit, 3-storey building to be co-located with the very successful Dugald Estates 55+ residence.  Thomson hopes to have shovels in the ground this fall “but reaching that goal will require a lot of hard work and community support over the next six months,” she said.    “We are accepting $1,000 refundable deposits from people who want to be on the waiting list and we already have 44 people on it.”  

In awarding the funding, the Investment Readiness Program indicated “this was a highly competitive program that attracted over 30 applications in our region from a broad range of social purpose organizations,” and the Dugald Place application “was very highly assessed” by the evaluation committee.  

This project is part of the Investment Readiness Program, the first initiative of the Government of Canada's Social Innovation and Social Finance Strategy.  In Manitoba, this funding of ‘non-repayable capital’ is delivered through a collaboration between Community Foundations of Canada and The Winnipeg Foundation, working in partnership with the Canadian Community Economic Development (CED) Network. Its purpose is to fund social purpose organizations to prepare for future investment.  These organizations are working to create meaningful jobs, strengthen the charitable and non-profit sector, and address social challenges, making them better prepared to receive investment, including through the Government of Canada’s Social Finance Fund.

Social purpose organizations strengthen local economies while giving back and creating more resilient and sustainable communities.  Springfield Heritage Housing Inc. is a community not-for-profit focused on increasing housing opportunities and economic development in the RM of Springfield.

For more information please contact:

Tiffany Fell, Mayor, RM of Springfield, 204-793-4349

Lesley Thomson, Chair of Springfield Heritage Housing Inc. www.dugaldplace.com

ljthomso@mymts.net 204-223-2095

Darcy Penner, Manitoba Network Manager and IRP Manitoba lead contact, Canadian CED Network. 

www.socialenterprisemanitoba.cad.penner@ccednet-rcdec.ca; 204-943-0547 x 201