Waterloo agency, Adventure 4 Change, fears it might have to close its neighbourhood hub on Phillip Street

WATERLOO — A Waterloo agency that serves marginalized communities in the Sunnydale neighbourhood fears it could lose its neighbourhood hub location on Phillip Street by the end of the year if it doesn’t get more funding.

Adventure 4 Change, a charity that works with vulnerable groups in north Waterloo, has relied on foundation grants to do its work, but now with the COVID-19 pandemic many of those foundation dollars are going strictly to COVID-19 relief measures.

At Adventure 4 Change, which operates on an annual budget of $300,000, it means they could lose their 1,400-square-foot space. Their lease ends in December.

“I don’t know what we will do if this goes,” Jeremy Horne, director at Adventure 4 Change, said in an interview from the hub on Friday.

But Horne said the agency will continue its work with the community.

“We will definitely be here. We will keep readjusting,” he said.

The agency has been told they will get some funding, but it won’t be enough, Horne said.

Horne said he’s met with City of Waterloo officials and he’s hopeful there could be some city money to help with programming.

Horne started Adventure 4 Change about 15 years and it recently became a charity, moving into the Phillip Street location two years ago.

The agency serves many of the racialized families living in the nearby Sunnydale community, as well as neighbourhoods on Albert Street near Bearinger Road, and housing on High Street across from St. David’s High School.

Many residents hail from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and the Middle East, including Libya, Syria, Egypt and Iraq.

Adventure 4 Change serves about 45 families with about 300 children. There are nearly 160 volunteers many of whom are the youth in the neighbourhood.

The agency has five staff — including three from the community it serves.

“The community has taken ownership of this space,” said Heather Powers, family and community co-ordinator.

“There is a sense of place,” she said.

Families come to the centre for tutoring, afterschool programming, camp, nutrition planning and monthly meetings for mothers. It’s also a space where families have held birthday parties and gathered to mourn the death of loved ones.

“Teenagers drop by and moms stop in on their way to Tim Hortons,” Powers said.

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Both Horne and Powers say many of their racialized families were hurt by COVID-19. Families were isolated, and when children stopped going to schools many of them stopped learning.

“These vulnerable families became even more vulnerable,” Horne said. “No one engaged with these communities.”

As children were getting ready for the start of school, the principal at MacGregor Public School and Cedarbrae Public School, along with some teachers, gathered in a nearby park in Sunnydale so parents could understand when their kids could go to school or learn remotely. Many of the conversations were translated with the help of a translator, Powers said.