Ottawa’s annual United Way campaign begins in less than a month, with this year’s edition featuring two chairs instead of one.
Councillor Mathieu Fleury and Majic 100’s Angie Poirier went to meet some of the people the charity helps on Wednesday, their first day at the helm.
“We want to see all kids succeed in our city and if we can help do that then it’s just going to benefit us all in the end,” Poirier said.
“Someone who might have started on a bad foot, getting that opportunity to turn their lives around, getting help, getting housing,” said Fleury of the ways United Way can assist people.
Seventy per cent of Ottawa’s population is working, compared to 43 per cent of people with a disability – a figure United Way said it’s trying to change by helping people like Jeremy Robins.
“I clean rugs, take down drapes, put up drapes,” Robins, who has an intellectual disability, said of his work with The Parliament Cleaning Group. “I like it, it teaches me independence.”
“We all want to belong to a community, right?” said Jennifer Bosworth of Live Work Play, an organization that gets United Way funding.
“Having a job, being out, interacting with people, earning money, contributing to our community, that's essential.”
Last year’s United Way campaign raised almost $32 million, with this year’s goal to be announced when the campaign begins Sept. 27.
With a report from CTV Ottawa’s Claudia Cautillo
