Metro Toronto Police chief David Boothby and his wife, Gloria, formally opened the prayer centre in the presence of leaders of different faiths.

Explaining the need for the prayer centre, Boothby said 7,000 police officers in the city face different kinds of conflicts and pressures and "so we need some spiritual help". Police officers also have complex family lives, he added.

At the opening ceremony, the leaders of various faiths, including Hinduism and Islam, said their brief prayers. Imam Abdulbhai Patel, the Islamic Community Hospital priest, said the chapel was "a dream come true as South Asian police officers now have a place for worship". "Spirituality is important at the workplace as we are forgetting this part in our lives.

Police now recognise this part," Patel said. Pandit Suma Persad, the Hindu chaplain at the University of Toronto, called the establishment of the chapel "a significant step and a milestone in community relations".

Venture capital fund invests for charity
Starting what may be the first venture capital fund set up specifically so it will never see any profit, Dan Kranzler is trying to harness the money-making power of what he does for a living to give a foundation a better start than he could have on his own, the Puget Sound Business Journal reports.

eFund International LLC-based in Kirkland, Washington-is a $40 million pool that will invest in communications, software and Internet companies. Profits realised from the investments will go into the Kirlin Foundation, set up by Kranzler to support children's organisations and educational programmes in the Northwest, the Journal reports.

The foundation's endowment is already up to $10 million and Kranzler wants to increase it to $100 million in the next few years.

The fund is believed to be the first in the country to give away all of its returns, Jeanne Metzger, a spokesperson for the National Venture Capital Association, told the Journal. "We have seen a rise in philanthropic activity among the venture capital community," Metzger said. "But a fund giving all of its proceeds to charity has never been heard of."

The venture capital spirit will be infused into the Kirlin Foundation as well, foundation head Ron Rabin said. Rabin said the foundation will not make grants so much as "investments" in the grant recipients, looking for promising organisations in which to invest, and taking an active role in their missions.

Wrigley's gift to planned abuse treatment facility
A $2.5 million private gift to Childhelp USA for the organisation's soon-to-be-built Children's Village of Arizona will kick off a $9.5 million capital campaign for the child abuse residential and treatment facility.

The gift from Wrigley Investment CEO Julie Wrigley will be given over five years to the public-private partnership to serve severely abused children in Arizona, a press release reports. Wrigley owns a home in the Phoenix area and is president of the Julie Ann Wrigley Foundation.

In making the grant announcement, Wrigley pointed to Childhelp's nationwide facilities that have an "extensive track record" of giving care for neglected children. Their programmes "not only meet abused children's physical needs, but also their educational, emotional and spiritual needs", she said.

That care will be brought to Phoenix when the 16-building residential treatment village is built. Before construction can start, however, Childhelp USA is seeking donation of about 100 acres of land on which to build.

The new Childhelp Children's Village of Arizona is expected to stretch over 68,000 square feet and include residential housing, recreational facilities and a school. Childhelp anticipates that 200 Arizona children under the age of 13 will live at the village each year.