The Foundation of Hope is hosting a night of cabaret music by pianist Kerry O’Donovan June 17th 7:00pm at the Permanent located at 330 West Pender.

Following Kerry will be a couple hours of great lounge music courtesy of DJ Niña Mendoza.

All proceeds go to support the Foundation of Hope’s grant programs that benefit LGBTQ+ Refugees escaping worldwide persecution and Newcomers here in Canada.

Click to Buy Tickets or Donate

Did you know in the past 8 years Foundation of Hope has given more to 2 pivotal organizations than any other community partner in Canada, from Coast to Coast to Coast?

Since we started awarding grants late in 2015, we’ve had 2 steady partners in Vancouver and Ottawa.

They are the roots of a movement that has become known across the world for SOGIE migrants – folks fleeing persecution on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.

Vancouver’s Rainbow Refugee and sister organization Capital Rainbow Refuge in Ottawa have benefited from $153,000 of a running total of $218,000 to support private sponsorships across Canada.

We have enabled the safe migration and resettlement of a over 51 refugees. That includes the Rainbow Refugee applications currently under review by community volunteers on the Review Subcommittee of the RFOH Grants Committee.

It amounts to $84,000 towards sponsorships for 25 LGBTQ+ refugees resettled in Ottawa and $69,000 towards 26 rainbow refugees resettled in Vancouver. That’s over 70% of all the queer folks we’ve helped to sponsor!!!

Private sponsors are ordinary Canadians like you and me. We work with them to do this work entirely as volunteers.

If you would like to contribute, please consider a donation or help us out with the work and become a volunteer.

We are pleased to announce the first grants awarded in 2022 to Nanaimo-based Brechin United Church and Toronto-based Sherbourne Health.

Nanaimo’s Reaching Out Assisting Refugees (ROAR) initiative works with Brechin United Church as a qualified donee to help assemble funds from community donors and bring private citizens together for an LGBTQ+ refugee sponsorship.

Our partner ROAR plans to team up with Vancouver’s Rainbow Refugee – our key national partner for private sponsorship – and the Intercultural Association of Greater Victoria to assist with the resettlement when the individual arrives. This will be ROAR’s second sponsorship to receive a support grant from RFOH.

Our partner Sherbourne Health in Toronto has offered important community support services to LGBTQ+ newcomer youth with its Supporting Our Youth (SOY) Program. The SOY Express Program has benefited from previous community services grants from RFOH.

This year Sherbourne wishes to dedicate a Make Change Fund to assist LGBTQ+ newcomer youth facing urgent needs as they attempt to financially secure themselves in Canada after having fled persecution on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression (SOGIE).

We are currently reviewing additional applications and are always looking for volunteers to help us get our message out on social media. If you are interested in helping out, please email Flavia, our volunteer coordinator at volunteer@strutvancouver.ca or check out our volunteer webpage.

VirtualSTRUT is over for 2021.

Thanks to our many donors and corporate partners, we raised $48,705 to support our LGBTQ+ Refugees & Newcomers worldwide. A huge thank you goes out to our organizing committee, Barb Snelgrove, and Drew & Jason from Tuck Entertainment.

Thanks to our friends at Vancity and TD Bank for their exceptional generosity. It allows us to ensure 100% of our grassroots donations go directly to grants. Each grant we award goes to a specific case of urgency faced by asylum seekers and refugees worldwide, along with resettlement support programs all across Canada. It has amounted to $312,581 to date with applications under review by the volunteers in our diverse LGBTQ+A community.

It is never too late to join our organization as a VOLUNTEER or to make a DONATION that will impact the lives of LGBTQ+ refugees facing persecution around the world.