Wesley Urban Ministries

About Wesley Urban Ministries:

Established in the basement of Wesley United Church in 1955, Wesley Urban Ministries has over 30 programs in 9 locations to combat poverty in Hamilton, Halton, and Brantford. Its services span across 3 client segments and services: children, youth and family; housing and homelessness; and neighbourhood and newcomer.

Children, youth, and family services are targeted towards neighbourhoods that would not otherwise have access to support services. They include prenatal and parental support, after-school programs focused on learning and recreation, and other learning initiatives. In F2016, 138,189 hot meals were served to children, adults, and seniors. Summer programs had 280 children in attendance, while after-school programs had 20,269 visits over the course of the school year. Wesley Urban Ministries’ employment services helped to employ 145 youth and adults in F2016.

Housing and homelessness programs span across residential services, addiction recovery, emergency shelters, and recreational programming. In F2016, 7,063 days of personalized treatment and 823 program sessions were provided by Wesley Urban Ministries. Emergency shelters served 83,348 meals and distributed food and holiday gifts to 824 households. Recreational programs had 823 participants in F2016. Education programs helped 4 previously homeless youth get accepted into post-secondary school.

Neighbourhood and newcomer services include the Syrian Refugee program, which was introduced in F2015. As of February 2017, Wesley Urban Ministries’ Syrian Refugee Fund has been distributed to refugees to pay for programs in sponsorship (24% of fund distributions), kids’ activities (22%), employment training and support (16%), food and health (15%), furniture (12%), and interpretation (10%). Between December 2015 and December 2016, 1338 Syrian refugees arrived, of which 95% secured permanent family physicians and 99% feel safe in their new community. Wesley Urban Ministries helped 900 refugees move into permanent housing in F2016.

Financial Review:

Wesley Urban Ministries is a medium-sized charity with $2.7m in donations and special events fundraising in F2017. Most of the charity’s funding comes from government sources, accounting for 74% of revenue in F2017. Administrative costs were 1% of revenues and fundraising costs were 9% of donations. For every $1 donated, 90 cents went to the cause, falling within Charity Intelligence’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Funding reserves of $2.4m include $28k of donor-endowed funds. As such, Wesley Urban Ministries can cover 18%, or just over 2 months, of annual programs and grants.

This charity report is an update that is currently being reviewed by Wesley Urban Ministries. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on July 11, 2017 by Juliana Badovinac.