'Love, Scarborough' campaign seeks to close health-care funding gap by raising $100M
Scarborough is asking Toronto to share the love when it comes to hospital donations.
In a new campaign that launched this month, the Scarborough Health Network (SHN) Foundation says their facilities receive less than one per cent of hospital donations in Toronto—even though it represents about 25 per cent of the city’s population.
“The hospitals in Scarborough have been chronically underfunded for decades now. And we see that in the aging infrastructure, and just in the lack of spaces to expand,” Dr. Collette Rutherford, Corporate Chief and Medical Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology at SHN, told CP24 Friday morning.
“These donations are absolutely critical in terms of upgrades, expansions, new programming, and so we're reaching out to Toronto, as a as a larger community, to help us and to support us in raising this $100 million to better serve and continue to provide excellent care to the people of Scarborough.”
The campaign, named “Love, Scarborough,” asks “when will we all be treated equally,” pointing out that most diverse neighborhoods are the most ignored when it comes to healthcare.
The Scarborough Health Network's 'Love, Scarborough' fundraising campaign is looking to raise $100M. (Twitter/Scarborough Health Network Foundation)
Rutherford says that more than half of the one million people who live in the area are newcomers to Canada and about 75 per cent of the population are visible minorities. And yet, these newcomers are being treated in the oldest hospitals.
After reviewing financial data published to the Canadian Revenue Agency, the SHN found that hospital foundations in the City of Toronto received donations of about $1 billion. Officials said the SHN foundation’s share, however, was less than one per cent of that.
The mass media marketing campaign “Love, Scarborough” hopes to change that. In 26 letters—one for every letter of the alphabet—community leaders, patients, doctors, staff and volunteers talk about what the SHN means to them and why they choose to call Scarborough home.
The campaign has been widely supported by various partners, including Bell Media, and politicians like Toronto Mayor John Tory, who last week raised the SHN Foundation’s flag and declared “Love, Scarborough Day.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Western University researchers unlock potential 'cure' for ALS
New research out of London, Ont.'s Western University is shedding light on a potential cure for ALS, in which the targeting of the interaction between two proteins can halt or fully reverse the disease's progression.
Police release 3D images of young child found in an Ontario river two years ago
Police have released a three-dimensional image of a young child whose remains were discovered in the Grand River in Dunnville, Ont. almost two years ago.
B.C. brings in law on name changes on day that child killer's new identity revealed
The BC NDP have tabled legislation aimed at stopping people who have committed certain heinous acts from changing their names.
Kamala Harris drops F-bomb during White House live-stream
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris used a profanity on Monday while offering advice to young Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders about how to break through barriers.
B.C. man fighting for refund after finding someone living at Whistler vacation rental
Edwin Mostered spent thousands of dollars booking a vacation home in Whistler, B.C., for a group skiing trip earlier this year – or so he thought.
Avs forward Valeri Nichushkin suspended at least six months
Colorado Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin was suspended for at least six months without pay and placed in Stage 3 of the league's player assistance program.
Collapsed Baltimore bridge span comes down with a boom after crews set off chain of explosives
Crews conducted a controlled demolition Monday to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
Security video caught admitted serial killer disposing of bodies in Winnipeg garbage bins
Security video caught admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki on multiple late-night outings, disposing of body parts in nearby garbage bins and dumpsters in the middle of the night.
Mortgage companies could intensify the next recession, U.S. officials warn
U.S. officials worry the next recession could be intensified by a cascading series of failures in the mortgage industry caused by crashing home prices, frozen financial markets and soaring delinquencies.