One of 1,000 campaign at Streams looks to create sustainable funding base

July 17, 2025 · 0 Comments

By Paula Brown, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Streams Community Hub is hoping to address its sustainability and longevity in the local community with a new fundraising campaign.

The youth-art focused charity has launched an extended fundraising campaign called One of 1,000, which looks to stir up 1,000 monthly donors from across Dufferin County to help sustain the charity for future generations.

“What we’re trying to achieve is a broad base of support that ensures that we continue to exist in the community. We would hate to find ourselves in a position where this space is no longer accessible to young people because we did not ask our community to get on board,” said Juli-Anne James, executive director and co-founder of Steams Community Hub.

According to Streams Community Hub, it takes between $350,000 and $400,000 per year to operate their programs and facility, located at 305 Col Phillips Dr., Shelburne.

“At this point it time, if we don’t broaden the base of support for the work that we do at Streams, we won’t be able to sustain the work,” said James.

Streams Community Hub has released examples of what different amounts of donations per month can provide for a child in the community.

A donation of $10 per month is equivalent to the cost of covering a full semester of after-school arts programing for one child each year; a donation of $25 per month funds a scholarship for a full week of camp for one student; $50 per month provides one full year of weekly arts classes such as theatre, music or visual arts, for a child; and a donation of $100 per month provides a full year of private music lessons including piano, guitar, vocals or drums, for one young musician.

“There are many donors who will opt to do more than $10 a month, but we’re just asking for a minimum of $10 a month because we believe that that’s an accessible amount for people to sort of throw at us,” said James.

James noted that if the organization hits their goal of 1,000 donors at $10 per month, it will cover roughly one-third of Stream’s annual operating budget.

The ultimate goal of the fundraiser is to eventually eliminate the cost and tuition fees of programming for every child who walks into Streams Community Hub.

“Our model at Streams is that we don’t turn away any child who wants to be there, so we offer scholarships and subsides to the program,” said James.

Since launching the One of 1,000 campaign in April, Streams Community Hub has been able to garner 91 monthly donors.

“We’re almost at the first milestone of 100 monthly donors, which is extremely encouraging,” said James. “There is a little bell on my deal that I ring every time I get an email there’s a new monthly donor. I ring that bell so that our staff and our facilitators can hear because it’s extremely meaningful to us.”

Streams hopes to reach its goal of 1,000 monthly donors by October of 2026, which will also mark the 10th anniversary of the art program.

Streams Community Hub launched in the summer of 2017 as a seasonal arts program for youth across Dufferin County, focused on a variety of art disciplines, including visual arts, cooking, music, theatre performance and filming.

After years of running on a seasonal basis and utilizing local schools, Streams announced in July of 2021 that they would be opening their first permanent location, a 3,600 square foot facility.

The new facility meant that Streams was able to provide year-round art programming for local youth.

“We could have never imagined when we started this organization, just running camps in school, how deep the impact of our presence would have on these young people,” said James. “It’s not necessarily about them being the next Picasso or stick with the art they participate in, but about the confidence they build, the community they connect to and the core memories they experience that can sometimes make a subtle shift in the trajectory of their life.”

For more information about Streams Community Hub or to donate to the One of 1,000 campaign, visit streamshub.org.