Outreach Opportunities Fund

The Outreach Opportunities Fund Committee selects outside organizations to receive a portion of the Sunday offering.

Outreach Opportunities Fund (OOF)

Statement of Purpose:

To distribute 25% of funds collected during the Sunday service to community charities, both those that are independent of the church and those that have some connection to the work of church committees. Priority is given to organizations undertaking social justice, refugee support and settlement and environmental sustainability work with a focus on vulnerable or other marginalized communities. Preference for funding is given to groups working primarily in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.

Members:

Carolyn Grant, Cecilia Gruber , Jennifer Malcolm, and Yvonne Marcus

Currently Collecting for:

Our current OOF recipient is the Wild Bird Trust of British Columbia (WBT) (March 2022-June 2022). WBT manages the Conservation Area at Maplewood Flats in North Vancouver. The Trust’s mission is to provide wild birds with sanctuary through ecological protection and restoration, and support communities with education, culture, and reconciliation programs. With 80,000 annual visitors, it features 5km of trails, a spectacular Nature House with year-round public artistic exhibitions, a social enterprise nursery, and wildlife education.

The Trust’s land is situated within the traditional and unceded territory of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN). Since 2017, WBT has embarked on a redress program to decolonize operations, giving up site governance to TWN and repairing the harm done by increasing cooperation and developing programs for the benefit of the TWN community.

Future Plans

Three organisations will be selected to receive funds from OOF during the next year. In the past, the committee has chosen the recipients but we now ask members of the congregation to nominate local charities for consideration by the committee.

To nominate an organisation please click on this link: OOF Nomination form or take a paper form from the bulletin board at the main entrance to Hewett Hall and leave it in the OOF mailbox in the UCV office or email it to Melody Mason.

OOF Nomination Form

Current Year

2022

Wild Bird Trust of British Columbia (currently collecting)

Previous Recipients

Here are some of the organizations we have supported in the past.

2011

Kinbrace

Elizabeth Fry Society $2500

2012

ACORN $2500
BC Coalition of People with Disabilities now the Disability Alliance $2500
Elizabeth Fry Society $1000
Rhizome Movement Building Centre $1500
VAST $1500