Community Matters: Reducing Poverty in Northumberland stock, gathering, to move the needle forward. 

There’s something sacred about gathering.

Alderville First Nations Councillor Julie Bothwell spoke about it at the Community Matters event – how food serves as a connector, how sharing a meal brings people together in ways that nothing else can. And she’s right. At its core, gathering is about more than just being in the same room; it’s about what happens when we sit together, when we show up, listen, when we open ourselves up to understanding one another.

At Community Matters: Reducing Poverty in Northumberland, we gathered.

Over 100 people. More than 25 panelists. One shared purpose – reducing poverty in Northumberland County. The room was filled with voices from across our community: nonprofit leaders, front-line workers, advocates, and individuals who live this reality every day. We didn’t just talk about the issues. We sat in conversation, in roundtables, in spaces where ideas could take root. We asked: Where do we go from here? And together, ideas took shape, we began to answer. 

Here’s the reality: Every nonprofit, every grassroots initiative, every organization doing good in Northumberland County needs more funding. That’s not new. That’s not shocking. It’s a fact of life in this sector. But we are in 2025. The post-COVID relief dollars are gone. The funding landscape has shifted. Our country is in transition – new leadership at every level. Even our ways of accessing information are changing as local news sources disappear. The world is different. And yet, what remains is us.

United Way Northumberland is the largest non-governmental funder in Northumberland County. That comes with responsibility – not just to allocate dollars, but to do it right. That means we can’t make decisions from behind a desk in downtown Cobourg. We can’t assume we know what’s best for the entire county without listening first. Community Matters: Reducing Poverty in Northumberland wasn’t just a gathering; it was a commitment. A commitment to moving forward in community, not just for it. To hearing the voices in the room, to understanding the real challenges, and to using that knowledge to shape the way we fund, support, and advocate.

Because this isn’t just about funding. It’s about people. It’s about knowing that solutions don’t come from the top down – they come from within. They come from community. They come from the conversations we had at the Columbus Community Centre on Wednesday, March 26th, the ideas that were shared, the plans that began to form.

And that’s how we move forward.

We listen. We gather. We take action.

Together.