Our Accomplishments The Kinsmen Foundation is the District Project of the Kinsmen and Kinette Clubs of British Columbia and Yukon, and the Kin Family takes great pride in their accomplishments over the past 58 years. Just a few of those accomplishments include: • Technology for Independent Living – An organization that was started and nurtured by the Kinsmen Foundation that provides very specialized technical assistive devices for severely physically disabled people to help them become more independent and enjoy a more fulfilling quality of life. • Noble House – The Kinsmen Foundation was instrumental in launching Noble House, an accessible residence to provide independent living for persons with severe physical disabilities. • Canuck Place – The Foundation provided substantial funding for one of the rooms at Canuck Place – a home away from home for children and families facing a life threatening illness. • Kinsmen Neurological Tower at the University of British Columbia. Major funding was provided by the Kinsmen and Kinette Clubs through their Foundation to build this world famous research facility at UBC. • G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre – The Kinsmen Club of Vancouver donated the land on which the G.F. Strong Centre sits today, and the Kinsmen Foundation and Kin Clubs throughout BC have provided thousands of dollars to the facility over the past 56 years. • BC Health Centres - In the early stages of the Foundation, when Polio was an epidemic, the Kinsmen Foundation and the Kinsmen and Kinette Clubs of BC provided funding for many of the current community and regional health Centres throughout the entire rovince. • Personal Support Network - one of the most exciting developments this year is the leadership role that your Foundation has taken in developing a Personal Support Network to assist disabled citizens of British Columbia in accessing assistive devices and funding for improvement to their quality of life. This network represents a single point of contact for disabled people and their caregivers to access equipment and funding through a Single point of contact, rather than trying to maneuver through some 55 organizations that provide levels of funding for a variety of disabilities. For many years in its history, the Kinsmen Foundation ran an annual Kinsmen’s Mothers March. The Annual Mother’s March fund raiser was staged throughout the entire Province. It was managed by the Foundation and run by the Kinsmen and Kinette Clubs throughout their communities to raise funds for their Foundation. This allowed the Foundation to provide funding for equipment, counselling, resource library, equipment loan program, Kids on the Block puppet show and a special technical aids program that went on to win the Readers Digest Award for their work in building assistive devices to aid the disabled.As times changed and it became more and more difficult for the Foundation and Kin Clubs to continue to do ‘door-to-door’ fund raising campaigns, the March faltered and was stopped over 10 years ago. Since that time, the Foundation has had to rely on the support of their Kinsmen and Kinette Clubs to provide funding for them to continue to carry out their mission of service to severely physically disabled persons. Many clubs have had to use access to gaming funds to continue their support of the Foundation, and even these funds appear to be getting less and less. With the ongoing cutbacks in health care and increased competition in the field of fund raising and non-profits, it has been a real hallenge to the Foundation to maintain its ability to meet these needs. Thanks to the ongoing and increasing support of our Kin Family, we have been able to provide a great deal of support to many of our Province's severely physically disabled. The Annual General Meetings of the Foundation will be held once again in conjunction with the District’s FLC. We hope you will all be able to attend. On Behalf of Chairman John Meneghello and the Foundation Board, we would like to say a big THANK YOU to the Kinsmen and Kinettes of British Columbia and Yukon for their continued faith and support of their Foundation. Without your continued support, we would not be able to continue the excellent work of the Foundation. Yours in Kin, |