Wellness Innovation Fund
Together, we can inspire, challenge and foster innovative projects and help our community thrive.
The Wellness Innovation fund awards grants, on an annual basis, for innovative projects that focus on health and wellness in South Georgian Bay.
About the Fund
By bringing together the Collingwood Hospital Foundation and Hospital, healthcare service providers, and community wellness stakeholders, we are finding new opportunities and innovative ways to keep the future of our community healthy and thriving.
How Does it Work?
The Fund is designed to provide seed funding to help launch innovative wellness-focused projects and programs or to improve existing programs. Preference will be given to projects/programs that have well thought out financial sustainability plans.
Recently Funded Projects
If you would like to share your donor story, we would love to hear from you. Donor stories inspire our medical staff to continue to do what they do. They also inspire other people to donate to your hospital and impact many other patients.
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The Pelvic Health Innovation Project
In a collaborative effort, Collingwood General and Marine Hospital (CGMH), Collingwood Well Baby Clinic, and Collingwood Pelvic Health, with the support of the CGMH Wellness Innovation Fund, are pleased to bring the community a multi-faceted Pelvic Floor Program. As of March 1, 2024, a CGMH physiotherapist will be seeing patients on Labour and Delivery after…
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Ledge Leadership
Ledge Leadership helps people learn to lead relationally and share power, focused on providing programs for young adults (ages 18-30) to enhance their whole person well-being and develop their capacity to lead. They also work to impact the systems and settings in which young people live, work, and learn. Funding from the Wellness Innovation Fund was…
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2020: The Green Prescription Program (GPP)
SGBCHC healthcare providers to prescribe ‘time in nature’ to support good health and wellbeing. The South Georgian Bay Community Health Centre (SGBCHC) is pleased to announce that it has partnered with community organizations to launch the Green Prescription pilot project. Funded by the Collingwood General and Marine Hospital Foundation’s Wellness Innovation Fund, and spearheaded by the SGBCHC, the goal…
Invest in the South Georgian Bay Wellness Innovation Fund Team
We believe more needs to be done to ensure South Georgian Bay continues its leadership in Community-based wellness innovation – the best place in Ontario to live, work, play and be healthy! Consider joining the Halls and a growing group of donors to build this special endowment fund. Programs like the ones highlighted above await your support.
You can support the CGMH Wellness Innovation Fund with an outright gift now or as a legacy gift in your estate plan. Many donors are finding that gifts of marketable securities or insurance policies are an attractive and effective way to achieve both their philanthropic and financial goals.
Please email [email protected], to discuss a gift towards the CGMH Wellness Innovation Fund.
About the Wellness Innovation Lead Donors, Barb & Larry Hall
Larry and Barb Hall’s connection with South Georgian Bay runs deeply, beginning in the late 1960’s with seasonal visits to ski with their family at the Alpine Ski Club. Occasional family member visits to the CGMH emergency department convinced them of the importance of a best-in-class hospital in the area. And Larry got involved, facilitating the planning for one of the Hospital’s first major fund-raising drives. Fast forward to the Fall of 2017, Barb and Larry had witnessed the growth of the Hospital Foundation, its impact on helping to foster excellence in care delivery at the Hospital. Importantly, the Hospital had attracted a cadre of best-in-class medical, support and administrative staff. South Georgian Bay was also growing with its people presenting challenging high expectations for service delivery. The Foundation had responded to this challenge, progressively raising the required monies to fund innovation. The Foundation’s focus was mostly on funding tools – the equipment that facilitated superb patient treatment and outcomes. Concurrently, the Hospital’s staff had created a hotbed of treatment innovation unparalleled in a rural hospital of its size in Ontario.
But, as observed by the Halls, the growing health innovation talent outside of the Hospital in the community could be better challenged and fostered. What was needed, thought the Halls, was a source of seed capital to encourage and fund innovative wellness projects in Southern Georgian Bay Communities. The Foundation’s response to the Halls challenge was swift and effective – the result- the CGMH Foundation Wellness Innovation Fund.
The Halls assumed the role as lead donors and provided $100,000 of funding. The Foundation convinced the Halls that the Fund needed broader Community support and capital of at least $250,000 to provide sufficient income to fund meaningful projects. The Halls responded with an additional $75,000 of matching funds and the Foundation mobilized to find additional community donors to reach the required funding goal. Quickly the community stepped up – a dozen new donors responded, and the goal was met – and the search for community-based Wellness Innovation projects commenced.
