Making Our Community United, Vibrant, and Strong.
When you support United Way of Thunder Bay, you’re helping to build a strong social safety net for everyone who lives here. This means that people have access to all the supports they need the most, when and where they need them. These are some examples of the many lives that have been changed because of you.
I was 11 years old when I arrived in Thunder Bay with my family. It was a tough move to make because things in my family were not good and I didn’t know anyone in the neighbourhood where we went. I have had a lot of trauma in my family and many struggles.
I have lived in poverty and have been food insecure for the majority of my life. I was born to a poor, abusive family and experienced the full wheel of abuse: emotional, mental, spiritual and sexual. I was sexually abused by outsiders, my parents beat me repeatedly…
As a young man I made some bad decisions that kept me from moving forward with my life. I started down the wrong path at an early age when I dropped out of school and got involved with drugs. I lived with addictions, poverty and was stuck in a bad place for many years…
Growing up I was not aware of the hardships my family faced. My parents struggled in their relationship, we had financial challenges and I grew up in a low income, stigmatized neighbourhood. Fortunately for me, I had a place in the neighbourhood that provided…
I have always been known as the guy who never did anything right, as a kid I got in trouble with the police, got in trouble at school … if someone could screw it up it was me. My first sense of doing something right, that I felt proud about, was when I got married someone was…
At 20, I left my home community for a better life. There wasn’t much in the way of opportunity there and I wanted to go to school, get a job and make something of myself. When I got to Thunder Bay I realized how tough a move like this was and felt totally alone which turned…
Grace has spent her life and career caring for others. In addition to raising three children of her own, she has worked in after-school programs and as a caregiver for families in her community. To many, she is considered a second mother—a wonderful legacy for someone…
Like most four-year-olds, Torri and Artha aren’t always eager to put on their shoes and jackets when their mom asks them to. The twin sisters stall and protest—if you’re a parent, you know the drill. But there is one thing that makes the girls switch to lightning speed. “If I tell them we’re…