Sarah Wood:
Federated Health Charities is as coalition of provincially-based charities in Ontario, dedicated to raising funds for its members with in the Ontario Public Service.

These funds support health education, awareness, medical research and client and patient services.

Tatyana Parfenyuk:
Federated Health Charities started in 1983 as the initiative of Ontario Public Sector. The idea of it was to raise funds in the same way they raise funds for social agencies, but for charities related to health.

Sarah Wood:
Over the thirty five years, we’ve raised over $48 million to give to these charities.

Tatyana Parfenyuk:
It started as a small campaign, raising funds for one charity. Over the years it grew into a big campaign, raising millions of dollars for seventeen charities, and this is not the end.

Angie Specic:
Crohn’s and Colitis Canada has been involved with Federated Health charities since 1988, and we are just delighted with the partnership. They’ve helped fund some very important programs focused to our Crohn’s and Colitis community, along with research.

Nancy Yarmel:
Last year alone, they raised $280 000. With that kind of a contribution, that significant contribution to us, you perhaps help two hundred people go to their cancer treatment for an entire year.

Sarah Wood:
Knowing that the work that Federated Health Charities is doing, that I’m doing, that the volunteers up in the OPS are doing, is potentially changing someone’s life, is a really amazing feeling.

David Denault:
If you go through the list of charities in Federated Health, everybody has got a personal experience with it. It may be somebody you know, it may be somebody that’s important.

To actually give tangible results to what those people feel, means everything.

Niya Bajaj:
When I was nineteen, my father had a quadruple bypass, and he was really well-supported by a number of cardiovascular charities. And seeing that level of care, and the fact that a community came together to support someone that they didn’t know really well, was really impactful for me.

And so being able to give back so that someone else can have that experience, means a lot.

Wendy Pinder:
Federated Health Charities is important to the Ontario AIDS network, because there is a lot of flexibility around how we use the funding, and because the amount of funding that we get every year is essential to our operations. If we had to move forward without that funding, it would definitely have an impact on our level of services.

Mary Alberti:
It’s not complicated: without these dollars and the support we receive from Federated Health, we couldn’t provide many of the direct services to people who really need them in our community.

Annie Bartlett:
I know that the money that comes into CF is going to advocacy, but it’s also going to, like, finding better treatments and better options for all the individuals like me, who really need longer lives and need healthier lives, and just a better daily existence.

Oria Chen James:
If it wasn’t for Diabetes Canada, I don’t think I’d be studying what I’m studying right now at university. I wouldn’t have become so confident in public speaking, and I wouldn’t have the community and the friends that I do today.

Nouma Hammash:
The clients are basically able to overcome the trauma and then go on to their lives, and to realise that there is life after a spinal cord injury. They need the support of the organisation and the support is got by having consistent and ongoing donations, like what we are getting from Federated Health Charities and the OPS.

Avril Goffredo:
It’s been really important for us to be involved with Federated Health Charities. Not only does it play a role in helping us to create more money for our cause, but it helps to create awareness of our organisation and our diseases in so many more people.

Chris Haromy:
The money that it provides is very important for people in Ontario. We’re able to provide more services for them, upgrade our resources in a more timely basis, provide better web-based resources, provide counselling services.

Tammy Moore:
We have worked with other organisations I the past, but what we’re really pleased about with Federated Health Charities, is that connection right back into communities within Ontario. For us, that connection back to community is really meaningful.

Sarah Wood:
Federate Health Charity hopes to continue raising money within the OPS. We hope to be able to bring on and support more charities and to continue to provide that funding for the support and research.

Shannon Fogarasi:
Without the financial support from Federated Health Charities, we wouldn’t be able to help patients and family members who are going through an exceedingly vulnerable time in their lives.

Gordana Skrba:
Thank you all for your support, for your commitment and generosity.

Tracie Napoli:
It’s really hard to get your message out to every single person, so when you have an organisation like OPS and FHC, it’s a great opportunity, it’s a great partnership, and we value it so very much.