Project Benevolence | 365 is an initiative that we have developed to distinguish ourselves as a firm with a purpose; a firm with aspirations to practice positive law by engaging in ethical leadership and by optimizing value for our clients, respect for our lawyers and employees, community and social betterment.
PB|365 drives a culture of giving within all of us at the firm. It empowers each of us to take intentional action, each and every day, to care about and for others in our workplace and our community by building personal and organizational awareness and by providing positive leadership through corporate philanthropy.
Each year, the Partners at Ross & McBride LLP allocate a portion of net profits towards benevolent actions; to champion, support, and guide groups, organizations, events and causes in the Hamilton Community. PB|365 defines our values as a law firm - and as a positive supportive presence for our employees, our clients and our community.
Our Vision Statement
“Ross & McBride LLP will be a driving force in supporting the value of the human connection on issues relating to the rights and betterment of all people within our community”.
We will begin with a focus on those areas that seek to eliminate disparity of opportunity for youth, social betterment and protection for women and girls, and the value of human connection for all those in need.
Further, we will be open to new ideas and opportunities, continually reviewing our vision and areas of focus to ensure that our corporate philanthropy continues to have an impact for decades to come.
Community Causes We Support
Charity of Hope
Since 1999 the Charity of Hope has granted wishes to thousands of children, youth and their families. They provide funding to schools and teachers to help students stay engaged and thrive in school. Community organizations count on the support and funding for their programs that help underprivileged children and youth. In addition, they provide acts of hope in funding children and families in need of immediate financial support.
The Charity of Hope is a lean organization – 90% of all dollars raised go back to supporting the cause. The Charity has raised over $1.6M and granted more than 550 acts of hope in the community.
The firm is pleased to support the Charity of Hope in 2021 as a recipient of our PB|365 charitable contribution.
Keeping Six
Keeping Six – Hamilton Harm Reduction Action League is a community based organization that defends the rights, dignity and humanity of people who use drugs. K6 was formed in response to the ravages of the opioid crisis, and out of recognition of the need for an organized voice for the people with lived and living experience of substance abuse. Keeping Six is encouraging local businesses, community agencies and other public spaces to include Naloxone in their first aid kits, and they encourage all people to be trained in the use of Naloxone.
Every Tuesday Keeping Six hosts a drop in for people who use drugs and those that love and support them. The drop-ins are a chance to have a coffee and a hot meal. The drop-ins are a space for people to come together in a supportive environment to socialize, inspire and create.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Keeping Six, in partnership with HAMSMART have engaged with City leadership, social service agencies, front line workers and encampment residents to work towards a public health and human rights based strategy for those experiencing homelessness and living in encampments.
COVID-19 has greatly impacted this population, therefore the volunteers of K6 will direct our financial support to their programs of most urgency in 2021.
Elizabeth Fry Society of Hamilton
The Elizabeth Fry Society is an organization that supports some of Hamilton’s most vulnerable populations – women, girls and children at risk, involved in or affected by the justice system.
They operate programs such as Holistic Empowerment and Reintegration, Court Support Program, STARS Program and SHARE Program with all working to break the cycle of poverty, addiction, mental illness, homelessness and crime.
Funding cuts and program pressures have reduced support programs across the board, have been devastating to the women that the program serves, and have forced EF to constantly look for other support streams.
Lawyers Feed the Hungry - Hamilton
The Lawyers Feed the Hungry program is run through the Law Society of Ontario – it is a soup kitchen that operates year round and provides breakfast and dinner in cities across the province.
On December 22, 2016 as part of a sponsorship with the LSO, we participated in the Lawyers Feed the Hungry Program in Toronto at Osgoode Hall. Ross & McBride also participates in the new LFH program, here in Hamilton. The program running in Hamilton offers dinner through the Mission Services kitchen on the last Wednesday of each month. In both cases we have sent a group of volunteers, to assist in the service of a meal to those that hungry.
This is the kind of community (legal and local) conscious initiative that actually makes a difference to people.
Pathways to Education - Hamilton
The Pathways to Education Program in Hamilton is part of a Canada-wide innovative high school support program designed to reduce poverty and its effects by lowering the dropout rate among high school students from economically disadvantaged communities and increase their participation in post-secondary programs.
Pathways to Education was established in two neighbourhoods in Hamilton in the 2009 and continues to provide opportunities and make a positive impact to youth and our community, today.
•Participation rates of more than 80 per cent of the youth in Pathways communities
•Improved graduation rates – increasing by an average of up to 85 per cent in communities where Pathways is offered
•Close to three quarters of all Pathways students who graduated from high school while in the Pathways Program have gone on to post-secondary education or training