Fundraising launched for new Northumberland Hospice

In May 2017, Northumberland Community Care announced that a new Facility would be built locally to care for those needing “End of Life Care” (see link below).  The timing was because the Provincial Government announced that they would pay $315,000 annually towards operating costs – enough for 3 of the 6 beds planned. On 22 September 2017, it was announced that Ontario Street in Hamilton Township had been selected as the site and on November 29, the fundraising was officially launched.  The $7 million to be raised will cover the cost of building plus the remainder of operating costs not covered by M.O.H. for the first three years.  At the fundraising launch, campaign co-chairs Gord and Patti Ley said that already $1,131,758 has been raised in private support.

Of the $7 million, the Province will be asked for $1.2M and $1M will be requested from the municipalities that will be served: Cobourg, Port Hope, Hamilton, Alnwick-Haldimand, Cramahe, Trent Hills, and Brighton.  That leaves $4.8M to be raised from individuals, businesses/corporations, grants, service groups and in-kind donations.  Of this, $1.1M has already been donated by several members of the committee.

The Northumberland Hospice Care Centre will act as a hub for Hospice programs and services, including end of life beds. The facility will offer a centralized, home-like setting, palliative navigation, bereavement services, a library of resources, a community volunteer visiting program, and the potential for day hospice programming and complementary care services.

Originally planned for 3 beds and 7,000 sq. ft., the building is now expected to be about 10,000 sq. ft. with 6 beds (with room to expand to 10).  That makes it quite a bit bigger than the 3 bed “Bridge Hospice” already set up in the County at Warkworth.  The Bridge’s web site here gives a good idea of what Hospice is about although the Northumberland Hospice Care Centre will provide a broader range of services for the entire county.

The video that they created does a good job of explaining what Hospice is about:

 

Addendum December 10, 2017

Gord & Patti Ley Campaign Co-Chairs and Trish Baird Executive Director of Community Care Northumberland wrote to Council asking for a contribution of $240,000 spread over three years.  This will be Cobourg’s part of the hoped for contribution from Northumberland municipalities based on $12 per resident. Their letter is on the Agenda for the Council meeting of December 11.

Their letter provided additional information on budget.

Below has been extracted from their presentation:

Project Budget

CCN is grateful for the early operating support and anticipated capital support for the project by the Ministry of Health, through the Central East LHIN. However, the current funding model does not fully fund all of the capital planning, construction and operating costs.

All nursing and personal support services not funded by LHIN will also be provided by CCN. As per current estimated costs, for a six-bed hospice and dependent on funding received by the Central East LHIN, there could be an anticipated operating budget short fall of approximately $250,000 per year. As a result, we anticipate the need to raise this amount per year for operating expenses. As this is a significant amount of community support the strategies that CCN needs to undertake early in the process will assist in determining the size and scope of this project.

On November 16, 2017 the CCN Board of Directors approved the projected budget of $7M, broken down in the following key areas:

Budget line Projected Budget
Hard Costs/Construction $4,000,000
Soft Costs / Fees / Land $1,100,000
Furnishings $300,000
Sustainability / Operating $750,000
Ancillary, Architect, Professional Fees & Fundraising Costs $850,000
Total Project Budget $7,000,000

Fundraising Strategy – Capital Campaign

The CCN Northumberland Hospice Care Centre project will be achieved by community resources through a capital campaign of approximately $7 Million to both build the facility and provide a sustaining reserve toward operational expenses for a 3-year period.

It is anticipated that the funding mix will be broken down as follows:

Revenue line Projected Amounts
Government Funding (all levels) $2,300,000
Private Funding $3,500,000
Grants / Service Groups $1,000,000
In-Kind $200,000
Total Projected Revenue $7,000,000

In order to bring the vision of a Northumberland Hospice Care Centre to fruition, CCN has launched the “Honouring The Journey” Campaign, on November 29, 2017. To-date, more than a dozen local community leaders have come forward to assist in moving the campaign forward. Already the project has benefitted from early leadership support, with three transformational gifts having been confirmed in the amount of $1.131M.

Construction will commence as soon as we have raised 85% of our campaign goal.

Staff recommended to Council that this be included in budget deliberations for 2018.