A $30,000 donation from the Bulger family helped Cornerstone Family Violence Prevention Centre launch its new long-term funds Endowment Gifts program in Cobourg on Tuesday.

The centre's endowment is a permanent fund and invested to achieve long-term capital growth while also providing an outlet to recognize and honour loved ones and individuals in a way that has an enduring impact; the minimum donation is $20,000.

“Endowment will help us to see into the future,” said Cornerstone Executive Director Nancy Johnston. “It will provide financial sustainability and some predictability in terms of the funds that we can use to better serve our community.”

The Endowment Gifts program, the first of its kind for Cornerstone, got a huge boost with the lead gift from the Bulger family, in memory of their parents Adeline and Joseph, longtime supporters of Cornerstone and who established a program supporting children. Siblings Dan and Kim Bulger were on hand for the announcement.

“The gift is important to my family to maintain and ensure that the Adeline Bulger Children’s Fund and now the Adeline and Joseph Bulger Children’s Fund is going to be there well after all of us - me and my siblings - are gone," Dan Bulger said. "And it’s going to be in place to protect children with vulnerabilities and make sure they have a safe place to do things and just to be children when they have been exposed to some tough things in life” .

Established in 1983, Cornerstone is celebrating 40 years and provides shelter, counselling and prevention programs for women and children impacted by gender-based violence. Johnston said the need continues to grow, and that was especially the case when people were expected to shelter at home during COVID-19 restrictions.

“For people experiencing violence in the home, that’s not a safe place to be and many women and children experienced abuse ongoing throughout the pandemic. So we are seeing impacts of that level of trauma for women and kids who had to live in really unsafe conditions and didn’t have the regular ways that they might have gotten away from the abuse in their home,” Johnston said, adding the lack of affordable housing in the area has meant longer shelter stays at Cornerstone for women and children.

“Our numbers continue to rise," Johnston added. "It’s about the issue not necessarily going away, but I also like to think of it in a more hopeful way that women are taking that really brave step of saying I don’t want to live like this anymore and I want to live a violence-free future for myself and my children.”

To learn more about Cornerstone or for anyone needing support, check out cornerstonenorthumberland.ca.

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