Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - There's a big party planned for the Top Knight tomorrow evening and it's all thanks to the federal government.

The Centre for Northern Families is holding its Hawaiian Luau Night fundraiser to raise money in the wake of federal funding cuts to the centre in recent years.

The event will feature colourful leis at the door, limbo and hula contests, door prizes and a prize for best costume. DJ Flint Palmer is spinning the music and emceeing the evening. The bar donated the space.

Proceeds from the event will help fund programs at the centre in the coming year.

The centre ran 17 different programs last year, including youth initiatives, cultural and health programming, daycare, support groups for immigrant families, the transitional house and the emergency shelter for women.

"Along with running all these programs comes a huge financial responsibility to sustain them," said event coordinator Mira Hall.

"In the past the centre has relied on government funding mainly for all of those things. Through the years funding for nonprofit organizations has been cut a lot. So, the centre is moving toward having a stronger focus on fundraising. While our territorial funding has remained consistent, the price of fuel has gone through the roof. The general costs of operating have gone up and it's making it increasingly difficult for us to be sustainable."

In addition to the fundraising effort, staff at the centre are also trying to raise awareness about the benefits to the community provided by the centre.

"Whether that's providing health programs so that our children grow up to be healthier people to providing a place to sleep to people who don't otherwise have a place that prevents them from sleeping in the bank lobbies and the apartment building doorways, we do offer a lot to this community and we're worthwhile to support," Hall said.

The clients served by the centre also contribute to the community in ways that some people may not realize, said programs director Cavelle Macneil.

"In my experience, people seem to think that the homeless are constantly taking but not giving," she said. "They do give back a lot to the community and people don't recognize that."

The women who live in the transitional home and stay at the shelter work hard to perform much of the upkeep, cleaning and organization of the centre space, removing trash, sweeping, mopping and keeping surfaces disinfected and safe for children who use the daycare.

The clients of the homeless shelter and the transition home, and participants in the programs for immigrant families, use the centre's kitchen to prepare food to bring to the hospital and to cater community functions. Earlier this year, the women in the shelter provided food for a community grieving the sudden loss of a young resident.

"The women and the centre staff whipped together trays and trays of sandwiches and vegetables in an hour and a half," Macneil said. "So they do give back to the community a lot more than people recognize."

The fundraiser begins tomorrow night at 7 p.m. and continues all night.