Muttart Foundation, an organization handling $4.5 million a year, sent Bob Wyatt to Yellowknife to help prompt volunteer organizations to apply for funding.
Dane Gibson
Northern News Services
NNSL (Feb 19/99) - It's not often someone comes to Yellowknife on a mission to give money away.
Muttart Foundation, an organization handling $4.5 million a year, sent Bob Wyatt from his base in Edmonton to Yellowknife earlier this week to help prompt volunteer organizations to apply for funding.
"We'd like to be far more active in the North, so it makes sense to spend a couple of days here," Wyatt told Yellowknifer Monday.
"The territories submitted less than a dozen applications this year. We haven't been getting the numbers we hoped for."
The foundation manages a social services fund dedicated to Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.
Its objectives include funding groups who teach children non-violent ways to handle conflict, aboriginal student education programs, and promoting ways to make charitable sectors more effective.
During his Yellowknife stay, Wyatt has met personally with 19 different area groups, showing each how to apply for funding.
"The fact that I've seen so many organizations makes me hopeful. We're looking forward to forming more partnerships here."
Northern Addiction Services, NWT Family Services, YWCA and AIDS Yellowknife are just some of the community groups discussing application criteria with Wyatt.
As well, more than 10 representatives came together at the Baker Centre Monday and Tuesday to hear Wyatt speak on ways different community organizations can join forces on certain issues.
Storefront for Voluntary Organizations executive director Denise Bekkema said the meetings, coupled with Wyatt's enthusiasm, is opening useful avenues of discussion.
"In the last six years, agencies have been coming together around the table mostly as a response to government strategic planning," Bekkema said.
"We feel the government sector and voluntary sector need to work more closely together."
She said the vibrant community network that exists here has accomplished much in the past year.
"We found we had a great impact on the development of the Yellowknife Health and Social Services board," Bekkema said.
"Building on that achievement, we want to discover what the basic needs are in the community and where the resources are."
