Where your Donations Go

At AO we pride ourselves on offering a hub of wrap-around services. The launch of many of these programs would not have been possible without the support of the community around us. What all of the programs we offer at AO have in common is the fact that they are centred around the principle of healing. Healing is about moving forward, finding new futures, creating possibilities, alliances, partnerships, and building a path forward. If you are healed the world is wide open for you.

Anishnabeg Outreach is a registered charity and will issue tax receipts in accordance with Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) guidelines.

To make an online donation to one of our programs click the button below.

Anishnabeg Outreach offers many different programs which will allow you to contribute to our donations. Through the incredible donation of a house, and the funds from the sale of the house, we were able to take our organization in a new direction and begin the building of our centre for healing. Your donations make a difference. For example, a local church collected funds and chose to donate to AO. We were able to double the value of the donation by purchasing a washer and dryer at a Black Friday sale. Now families can donate their children’s outgrown clothing that we can wash, fold, sort and distribute to other families in the community. Oftentimes families are confronted with choosing food over clothing and the washer and dryer meant that children could have both food and clothing.

Take the time to learn about where your donations go, and the impact they carry across our various programs at Anishnabeg Outreach. Below are descriptions of how each program utilizes and needs the donations we try to raise.

Cultural Support Programs

AO offers various Cultural Support Programs to Indigenous Communities within the Ontario Region. We have our Orange Shirt Pin Program and virtual beading classes that facilitate a foundation of entrepreneurship by teaching Indigenous Individuals how to do beading work. They create Orange Shirt pins in honor of the Indigenous children who experienced a painful history in residential schools in Canada. In our Orange Shirt Pin Program, participants receive an honorarium at $30 per pin, which supports them and facilitates a foundation for them to launch their own entrepreneurial beading business.

We host several virtual Indigenous-led paint nights every month at no cost to those who want to participate. This workshop provides all the materials and tools necessary to participate in every workshop, including paint, brushes, canvases and more. We either provide a delivery or prepare a pickup package for our participants.

We have started a Sports & Tutoring program for children to improve their skills in various subjects at schools. At the same time, we also facilitate sports activities for them to gain some healthy physical activity and bond with other children. We host these Sports & Tutoring sessions every Thursday, and also provide school supplies to our participants in need.

We also have Ribbon Skirt & Shirt Workshops that we are offering to Indigenous Communities in Ontario. We prepare the sewing supplies, thread, material, ribbons and more for them to participants and facilitate an environment of teaching and reconnection of culture. This workshop provides the opportunity for individuals to learn how to sew and create indigenous regalia that they can wear with pride; to also stand in solidarity with Indigenous women who have experienced discrimination and abuse within the police system.

Our Summer Sports program also allows children aged 6 to 16 to attend various physical activity events at AO. We will offer a wide range of options for children to participate and have a healthy lifestyle including basketball, hockey, soccer, ultimate frisbee, biking, martial arts, yoga, and much more. We will also be lending out various equipment for children to participant in these programs and donating equipment to families who would like to use them.

To learn more about these programs, click the links below.

Spirit Bundle Program

As a part of our Spirit Bundle Program, we aim to improve food security within Indigenous Communities in Ontario. We offer various household items and grocery bundles bi-weekly to our program participants. These items are supported by The Waterloo Food Bank, The SEED, COBS Bread and the KW Humane Society to meet the food needs of humans and pets! However, donations support the delivery of these items and maintenance of our food truck. Currently, we are trying to raise donations for a refrigerated truck that would allow us to delivery temperature sensitive foods efficiently and in a safe environment.

To learn more about our Spirit Bundle Program, click the link below.

Thrifting Program

It is estimated that 30% of our national prison population consists of Indigenous peoples. As part of our ongoing desire to support Indigenous women in prisons in our region, we are building day release programs that enable women to learn valuable skills to foster rehabilitation. One of the programs we are building is a thrifting program that can teach individuals how to upcycle and repurpose thrifted clothing items for themselves and their families. We will also offer cultural teachings and workshops teaching things like ribbon skirt making.

With the help from local Rotary clubs and other community members, we have been able to reach our fundraising goal and will be purchasing sewing machines and tools in the near future. We are so excited to get this program off the ground and teach thrifting and sewing to local Indigenous peoples. This will be a rewarding day release program but also offer an opportunity for other local community members to engage and learn a new skill at our centre.

We continue to seek donations for the launch of this program. While we are able to now order our sewing machines, we still require funding for material and tools. If this is a project you are interested in supporting please donate with the button below.

Mentorship Program

We have expanded our focus on education with the new development of our national Indigenous Tech Mentorship and Employment Program that we have built-in partnership with many organizations across the country. This coding-based education program provides a hand-up for Indigenous peoples (both urban and remote) by walking them through a coding program that will set them up with the basic skills to be employable in the field. Not only is the growth of this program essential in bridging the education gap that is responsible for a 500 percent higher dropout rate for Indigenous youth as compared to their non-Indigenous peers, but it creates a talent pool for local tech companies and diversifies ideas and work being done in the tech industry. Graduates of the mentoring program will be able to develop artificial intelligence programs or mobile applications.