“Mr. French’s vision was to ensure that in moving forward we had access to sustainable funding.”

Congratulations to one of our Board Members, Brad French, for being added to the Youth Diversion Program’s “Foundations for Success” wall.   Brad has been volunteering with Youth Diversion Program (YDP) for over 15 years, contributing strategic advice and spearheading fundraising efforts.

Amongst Brad’s many contributions was the establishment of the Youth Diversion Sustainability Fund at the Community Foundation.  Brad made the initial gift to establish the Fund four years ago, and his company, Alliance Alarms, has since offered several matching gifts opportunities to help grow the fund.

Most recently, Brad used a $5K matching gift commitment to raise $20K for the Fund at an event held to recognize YDP’s outgoing long-standing executive director, Darren Dougall, and to recognize and thank their past years’ donors.

Youth Diversion is committed to growing the Fund to provide it with a reliable source of annual funding. They have big goals for the Fund, and are helping to build it by contributing a small portion of large gifts they receive to their permanent endowment fund.

“Mr. French’s vision was to ensure that in moving forward we had access to sustainable funding to support our efforts to help youth overcome challenges. As this fund grows, it increases our ability to deliver evidence informed programing to youth in our community” ” said Shawn Quigley, YDP’s Executive Director. “Because of Mr. French’s ongoing commitment to this fund, we are now at $50,000”.

The Foundation is pleased to support the great work of Youth Diversion Program by holding two endowment funds in support of the organization – the Sustainability Fund and the Heather Lynne Wells Memorial Fund.

As well, the Foundation has provided YDP with 17 Community Grants, most recently a grant of $25,328 grant to provide addictions literacy workshops for elementary school children in Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington Counties.

YDP does amazing work helping youth in our community – our “Getting Started” priority.

Congratulations, Brad, for this well-deserved recognition!