by Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

NNSL (Oct 10/97) - The familiar red-and-white Block Parents signs have been a fixture in Yellowknife front windows for 21 years.

The signs tell youngsters who may be bothered by bullies, locked out of their houses or approached by strangers that they can find refuge there.

Yellowknife has 200 active Block Parents. Rosalie Powers, head of the local chapter and a 20-year Block Parent, hopes a few more come forward after the annual awareness-raising Block Parents Week, which will be held October 19 to 25.

"Two hundred in a city of 17,000 isn't that many," said Powers.

"We're always trying to encourage people to become Block Parents."

The awareness week will be followed up on Halloween when a few hundred Pop-Tarts will be wrapped with information pamphlets and handed out to trick-or-treaters.

There is no cost to become a Block Parent, but applicants have to undergo a criminal background check by the police.

Powers said all the Block Parents in Yellowknife see only a few incidents a year among them, but just having the signs in a neighbourhood makes it feel safer.

"The sign is more of a deterrent than anything else. It says to people that this is a good neighbourhood."

The organization raises the little money it needs to operate locally with an annual Christmas raffle and keeps its costs low by working closely with the RCMP to do things such as mailouts.