Hyundai Canada and Kia Canada are giving communities across the country a boost with separate financial contributions.

They are separate companies that are part of Hyundai Motor Group, and both announced major donations recently.

Hyundai Canada donation

Hyundai Canada announced Wednesday, June 5 a $500,000 donation to the Markham Stouffville Hospital Foundation.

The donation kicks off the foundation’s $3.1-million fundraising campaign in support of a new, six-bed child and adolescent mental health in-patient unit at Oak Valley Health’s Markham Stouffville Hospital (MSH).

The unit would be an expansion of the existing outpatient services and would fill a critical gap in child and youth mental health support in York and Durham regions. This project has been in the works for about a decade, but has struggled to raise the money.

“Since the pandemic, there have been more kids in crisis than I have ever seen in my career. I can’t think of a family in this day and age that hasn’t been impacted. The need for this unit at MSH is something we have to address as our community gets bigger,” said Dr. Rus Sethna, chief of psychiatry, Oak Valley Health, in a news release. “As a community, we need to band together to continue to destigmatize mental illness, and work together to bring innovation and mental health care to our local community.”

The hospital’s Child and Adolescent Services outpatient mental health program facilitates approximately 7,200 pediatric patient visits annually.

“Supporting today’s youth for their success tomorrow is one of the core tenets of Hyundai’s larger ethos of ‘progress for humanity,’” said Kirk Merrett, Hyundai Canada’s director of human resources and administration, in the release. “Every child deserves to be able to access the support they need within their local community. We are thankful and fortunate that we can support the community through the Markham Stouffville Hospital Foundation and help realize a goal that is long overdue.”

More information on the fundraising campaign is available at mshf.on.ca.

Kia Canada donations

On the same day as the Hyundai announcement, Kia announced the 2024 recipients of Kia Communities in Motion.

Through this initiative, Kia Canada is supporting seven charities and non-profits across the country.

The company did not say how much each charity is receiving, but said it is supporting projects that are building inclusive communities through innovative programming that encourages movement.

Kia Canada partnered with Community Foundations of Canada, which has a network of more than 200 community foundations across the country. The five community foundations that were specifically involved this year include: Banff Canmore Foundation, Fondation du Grand Montreal, Community Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, Waterloo Region Community Foundation and Annauma Community Foundation.

The seven charities/non-profits that were selected and their projects are:

• Town of Canmore: Moving Together: Good Relations in the Bow Valley
• Bridges Social Development: Mînî Hrpa Organizational Development and Capacity Building
• Connecting Horizons: Kahnawake Drive to Succeed
• Trans Support NL: TransEmpowerNL: Advocacy Collective
• Mokami Status of Women Council: The Fireweed Project
• Kitchener Waterloo Multicultural Centre: Waterloo Region Rural Communities Welcome Newcomers
• Nunavut Association of Non-Profit Organizations: Piliriqatigiinnirmut 2024

“Kia Communities in Motion is working to advance marginalized groups while promoting holistic community development. At Kia, we want to support mobility not just physically in our vehicles, but also socially, economically, and environmentally, to help communities across the country thrive,” said

Elias El-Achhab, vice president and chief operating officer of Kia Canada, in a news release.