The Ontario Trillium Foundation, an agency of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, receives annually$100 million of government funding generated through Ontario's charity casino initiative.

The Simcoe-York catchment area is geographically large. It has a diverse population base and a chronically under-developed and under-funded grassroots not-for-profit sector. In an attempt to reach out to more community groups and not-for-profit organizations in York Region, Trillium retained Andrea Bourrie to organize a series of Community Development Sessions in late May and early June 2002. Over 100 people attended the workshops that were held in five locations across York Region. A significant proportion of the participants were new organizations in the sense that Trillium's program managers had not dealt with them in the past. 'One-on-one' discussions and an expanded 'grant-writing' workshop were particularly popular aspects of the program.

Andrea was successful in securing partnerships with community organizations for each session. This arrangement helped with local advertising and also provided a community 'face' to the event.

Andrea also assisted Simcoe-York Program Managers complete research on active grant applications in 2001 to 2004. Research involved contacting references and external advisors about applicant organizations and proposed initiatives. Andrea's knowledge of the York Region community and her broad-based contacts were a great asset during the tight timeframe available to complete the research.