Local community service agency awarded $18,000 grant from Libro Credit Union

For Immediate Release
Thursday, October 27, 2022

BRANTFORD, ONTARIO - St. Leonard’s Community Services (SLCS) is honoured to accept a grant for $18,000 from Libro Credit Union to support the expansion of SLCS Supportive Housing programs and services.

“St. Leonard’s Community Services’ Supportive Housing programs help community members ages 16 and up who are at risk of homelessness, promoting self-sufficiency while preventing housing loss” said Katie Curtis, Director of Justice & Housing Services “The Libro Grant will support growing staffing requirements and programs demands desperately needed by this population.”

With the support of Libro Credit Union, St. Leonard’s Community Services’ Supportive Housing will continue the facilitation of the successful RentSmart Certification program. Free to community members on the SLCS housing waitlist, RentSmart Certification program is a 6-week certificate program that provides aspiring tenants with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to find and maintain good housing.  With the assistance of this grant, the Supportive Housing Team will increase staffing capacity to enhance timely services for clients entering our programs.

Furthermore, funds will assist the creation of a Resource Centre, located within the new SLCS facility on Murray Street, Brantford. This space will house the SLCS Supportive Housing staff, a resource area to run the RentSmart Certificate program and a space to engage with community partners to offer a variety of community groups to our Supportive Housing clients. The community space will allow access for all Supportive Housing clients to utilize as needed with an option to use wireless internet, computers, and a printer; ensuring clients are equipped with the supplies, including food items, that they need for success.

The Libro Annual Grants Program invests in organizations whose work reflects financial resilience, housing, employment, and local food accessibility. Everything Libro does is aimed at growing prosperity including investments in the community.

St. Leonard’s Community Services offers support to the people in Brantford, Brant and Haldimand. This includes providing our community members with programs and services in the areas of Employment, Housing, Justice and Addictions and Mental Health.

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For more information, please contact:
Katie Curtis, Director of Justice & Housing Services, St. Leonard’s Community Services
Phone: 519-756-7665 ext. 2222 kcurtis@st-leonards.com

About St. Leonard’s Community Services: A not-for-profit organization that has been offering help to the people in Brantford, Brant, and Haldimand for over 50 years. Today, we provide our community members with support in the areas of Employment, Housing, Justice, and Addictions and Mental Health. Some of the most vulnerable people we work with need assistance in more than one – or even all - of these categories. For an in-depth look at the variety of services we deliver in each of these areas, please www.st-leonards.com.

About Libro Credit Union: The largest credit union in southwestern Ontario and a registered B Corp, Libro Credit Union serves 108,000 Owners – the customers who all own a piece of the company, including 9,566 businesses. Libro has more than 700 employees, 36 locations and a wide range of digital services, all supporting Owners as a full-service financial institution. For more than 75 years, Libro is also run as a cooperative, in which the customers are the shareholders, electing the Board of Directors. All of Libro’s profits stay in southwestern Ontario and everything Libro does is aligned with its social purpose of growing prosperity for everyone in the region.  For more information, visit libro.ca/media.