What’s being described as a historic investment from the province is on its way to the PADDLE Program in North Bay.
Vic Fedeli, MPP for Nipissing announced $260,000 in one-time funding for the local service provider, which supports adults with developmental disabilities with a unique and holistic learning environment.
The money is for operational costs and will address current service gaps and allow PADDLE to continue to deliver academic, recreational and leisure programming.
“This is unbelievable,” says Megan Johnson, Executive Director of PADDLE. “This is a historic investment in people in our community. The people that we support at PADDLE are valuable and important. They deserve to have an inclusive community experience just like you and me.”
Fedeli says he continues to work on getting permanent funding.
“The minister sits one seat behind me and one seat over and there isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t glare at him and say is today the day for PADDLE,” he says. “When he told me we can go ahead with the $260,000 for this year the PADDLE folks were so wonderfully happy and now we’re trying to make that permanent.”
PADDLE also receives $35,000 from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund to hire a Community Connector intern.
Earlier this spring, the Ontario Trillium Foundation provided the local service provider with $200,000 to hire a Sustainability Officer and a Transition Coordinator.
Johnson says the funding will help them address their wait lists, which include over 30 people.
