2020
August 2020: Carswell Family Foundation provides support for the new Medical Education Centre at the Michael Garron Hospital. This facility will be named the Carswell Family Medical Education Centre and will encompass better access to educational resources through a new medical library and medical education centre, as well as conference rooms, lecture halls, and learning spaces. Also included will be enhanced connections and shared learning among medical and allied health professionals such as occupational therapists, nurses, physio therapists, and speech language pathologists.
June 2020: Carswell Family Foundation backs the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada over a three-year period for the purpose of increasing the outreach capabilities of the RASC. This gift agreement includes the condition that RASC will achieve a one hundred percent dollar match to the gift from new supporters by the end of the three years.
June 2020: CFF funds the publication by the Alzheimer Society of York Region anthology volume in the Hearts Linked by Courage project by I C Publishing. The book shares stories of individuals at various stages of the journey to help others understand what it is like to live with dementia. Readers will gain a deeper appreciation that people are much more than their disease and those challenged and suffering from dementia need and deserve our ongoing help, support, and kindness.
April 2020: One-time donation to Southlake Regional Health Centre’s Covid-19 Action Fund. Southlake is facing an unprecedented healthcare crisis. They are fighting the COVID-19 pandemic head on. Their Assessment Centre has seen well over 100 people a day, with patients on ventilators in ICU, and many more awaiting test results. The urgent need is to save lives while preparing for what’s to come in these uncertain pandemic times.
2019
June 2019: Established the Carswell Family Foundation gift to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada over a three-year period for the purpose of increasing the Canada-wide outreach capabilities of the RASC.
Since 2019: CFF has supported the educational component of Woodgreen’s Homeward Bound Program, a four-year program that includes a free two-year college education and fourteen-week unpaid internship to help single mothers become self-sufficient and ensure the success of their children. This innovative program involves life skills training, housing, childcare, postsecondary education, and connection to well-paid employment that helps homeless or inadequately housed single mothers achieve lasting economic self-sufficiency. CFF supports the college program that Homeward Bound participants complete as part of their journey to economic independence for themselves and their families. The goal is to support sixty Homeward Bound scholarships over the next two to three years.
2018
November 2018: CFF established the Carswell Family Foundation Scholarship at Regent Park School of Music to support Joshua Dunbar, an outstanding candidate to represent Canada in the International Dance World Cup at Braga, Portugal in June 2019.
July 2018: CFF supported the summer job wages for seventy Grade 11 girls in the Lassonde Summer Student Research and Mentorship Program, an initiative of the York University Lassonde School of Engineering created to show young women how an engineering and computer science education can make a difference in the world and to society.
February 2018: CFF supported the Alzheimer Society of Toronto Slumber Party and Fundraising Walk as a joint program with the Regent Park School of Music. The RPSM provided several of their ensembles to entertain during the walk and participate in the overnight slumber party.
2016
June to August 2016: Under the Canada Summer Jobs Program, CFF supported summer jobs for seventy students from fourteen community organizations in troubled Toronto neighbourhoods. The students worked with faculty and graduate students as part of the ongoing engineering research activities at Lassonde School of Engineering at York University.
Former nurse Helen Carswell wrote out a $1-million prescription yesterday for the hospital she once called home. The gift to Toronto East General Hospital is the largest private donation in its 72 year history. Carswell, in her mid-60s, was assistant head nurse there from 1955-58.
“I feel very good about (donating the money),” Carswell said. The $1 million will go to the hospital’s new Complex Continuing Care Service for seniors with unstable chronic conditions. The centre was unveiled yesterday at a ceremony honouring Carswell and her husband, Allan. The Carswells work at Optech, their laser-radar technology company.