The Community Emergency Fund (CEF) is Sudbury’s fund of last resort. It has helped Sudbury families in urgent need with food, heat, hydro, rent, and medications for over 20 years.
In the past 10 years, the CEF has disbursed over $100,000 to individuals and families in crisis in our community.
This year the CEF set a fundraising target of $10,000, and the public's help is needed to reach the goal.
Here's how you can help:
- Make a charitable donation, donate directly to the Social Planning Council of Sudbury or visit its GoFundMe page at www.gofundme.com/SPCS-CEF.
- Organize your own fundraisers, contact us and we can assist with organizing an event or initiative within your office, church or school community.
- Volunteer time, if you are an individual you can help us by volunteering with CEF activities.
- Make a gift donation, during this festive time of year this is an opportunity to donate on behalf of someone on your list.
- Other, if you have any additional ideas you can contact us directly and we will help make it into a reality.
The CEF is administered through a collaborative of community partners, including the Social Planning Council of Sudbury. Applications must be submitted through partner agencies and funds are dispersed directly to where support is needed.
The fund is administered voluntarily ensuring 100 per cent of the donated funds support household emergencies in our community.
“My colleagues and I have applied to the Community Emergency Fund quite frequently over the years: usually we are looking for a small amount of funds that is not available anywhere else and will make a significant difference in someone’s situation, or for that last small amount that has to be found to achieve the total needed to prevent an eviction,” said Chris Cosby, community legal worker with the Sudbury Community Legal Clinic.
“As many of our clients have very low incomes, we have also applied to the CEF for food vouchers: many people have to spend so much of their income on shelter costs that they can’t afford food for the month.
“The CEF is literally a lifesaver. Sudbury will be a much poorer place, in dollars and in spirit, if the fund runs dry for lack of contributions.”
“The Community Emergency Fund gives people who are in poverty and in particularly desperate situations some help and some hope," said Annette Reszczynski, NOAH Community Hub Convener.
