United Way Peterborough & District hosted its 84th annual general meeting at the McDonnel St. Community Centre on Thursday (August 6), recognizing a milestone year that saw the hiring of a new CEO, over $1.5 million raised, and over $2.4 million invested back into the community.
“As I reflect on the past 12 months, I’m filled with gratitude for the extraordinary generosity, dedication, and passion of our donors, volunteers, community partners, staff, and fellow board members,” said Karen Wilson, board chair for United Way Peterborough and District.
“Together, we’ve demonstrated what is possible when a community comes together with a shared purpose.”
Last December, long-time executive director Jim Russell announced he would retire the following summer after leading the organization for almost 15 years. United Way began the search for new leadership before announcing the appointment of new CEO Jason Seguya in June.
Seguya, 27, a native of Uganda, comes to Peterborough via Ottawa, having previously served as executive director of The Fulcrum Publishing Society and of Ontario Student Voices. He has a bachelor of science in social sciences from the University of Ottawa.
“One thing I’ve been sharing both with my team and family is how grateful I’ve been for the support I’ve had since joining this community,” said Seguya at Thursday’s meeting.
As Seguya only started in his new role on July 6, he was joined at the meeting by United Way staff members to provide a review of the organization’s work in 2025.
Campaign officer Adeline Murphy spoke about the success of the 2025-26 campaign, which raised $1,560,075 representing 97 per cent of its goal.
Murphy also specifically recognized the contributions of 2025-26 campaign cabinet chair Paul Rellinger.
“It’s such a privilege to be able to work alongside such a generous community and community in our staff team, and in our volunteers, and in our donors,” said Murphy.
On July 15, the United Way announced community builder Tiffany Arcari would be the 2026-27 campaign cabinet chair.
Arcari will lead a team of 20 volunteers to achieve a potentially record-breaking goal in line with the organization’s 85th year.
Betsy MacDonald, senior director of impact and communications, spoke about the redevelopment of United Way’s community impact model which has been in place for over 10 years.
“It was done thoughtfully,” she said. “It provided the stability that organizations needed at the time but, as we all know, we’ve changed hugely in that time period, and it was time for a change.”
MacDonald also said that improvements were made to how United Way managed the Reaching Home program, which is funded by the federal government, including the creation of an Indigenous advisory group.
According to the United Way’s 2025-26 Annual Impact Report, a total of $1,493,962 was invested across 12 local organizations. This included $200,000 provided to One City Peterborough to support the purchase of a new house on Stewart Street.
Community impact officer Elisha Rubacha shared information about the United Way’s ongoing work to integrate the values of reconciliation, equity, accessibility, diversity, and inclusion (READI) throughout their work, both internally and externally.
“I’m very proud of how we’ve been looking at ourselves deeply. We’ve had rich, intentional conversations of where we’re at, because this is always a journey, there’s no end point to the READI work,” said Rubacha.
Over the past year, United Way has assessed their internal systems against United Way Centraide Canada’s DEI Toolkit, developed an action plan based on strengths and spaces for improvement, and implemented READI values across the organization.
“Peterborough, as a community, has always been home to diverse demographics. Poverty to possibility can only happen once we acknowledge the intersections of social issues that persist in our community,” writes Sahar Afroz, READI Committee chair, in the annual impact report.
