2006 - People want community

In the early 2000s and 2010s, the world was more connected than ever, and our members wanted a feeling of community. Through our Community grants, partnerships with organizations like KaBOOM! and our Growing a Better Future program, our members stayed connected over giving back. Since their inception in 2012, our members have used almost 25,000 grants consisting of over $45 million to live well and help their communities.

A milestone playground build

One of our oldest partnerships is with Kaboom!, a nonprofit with the goal to end playspace inequity for good. Foresters first partnered with KaBOOM! in 2006. Since that first year together, the partnership has spanned 101 cities where we’ve built 170 playspaces alongside over 11,000 members and guests. All this work has given 5.7 million children more access to play in their communities.3

In 2018 we had officially built our 150th playground with KaBOOM!. In Minneapolis, over 200 Foresters volunteers, the Jenny Lind Elementary School and KaBOOM! came together to create a new playspace giving more than 1,300 children a fresh place to play, thrive and grow. This was a huge milestone in our KaBOOM! partnership, and one that would inspire us to continue building playspaces together.

Coming together to give back to communities

In 2012, our Community Grants officially launched to our members. These grants made organizing fun family events and community give-back activities easier to do than ever before. Creating a sense of community and togetherness had hit a new stride as more members took time out of their daily schedules to organize get-togethers around helping communities and reconnecting with loved ones.

During this inaugural year, hundreds of inspiring stories of selflessness erupted across Canada, the US and the UK. In Toronto, Ontario, Canada, hundreds of Foresters members gathered at the Ontario Science Centre to pack care kits for local families in need.

In Michigan, United States, members joined local charities and high school students to held a day of community service in October of 2012. This union of volunteers helped senior citizens and veterans with home repairs, yard maintenance and painting of sheds, garages and porches.

Over in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom, Foresters members raised funds for a children’s hospice center. The fundraiser featured celebrity storytelling and poetry recitals, and it raised ￡12,000 for the hospice.

Growing a Better Future takes off

We launched our Growing a Better Future program in 2022, and it offered our members four unique activity options that helped them reconnect with each other while enriching the world around us. Members could help save pollinators, clean up green spaces, inspire home gardens and start community food forests.

Article source: https://www.foresters.com/en-ca/about/foresters150