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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknifers living in emergency shelters or transitional housing received free access to a wide range of support services, ranging from legal advice to haircuts, thanks to a YWCA initiative.

Dana Larocque, left, gets a trim while hairdresser Miranda Minilgak of Vixen salon uses the clippers on Felixberto Modesto at Northern United Place Monday afternoon as the YWCA hosted its second 'Yes We Care Day.' Services such as haircuts, flu shots, child care and legal advice were offered at no cost to people living in emergency shelters or transitional housing. - Galit Rodan/NNSL photo

The YWCA held its second Yes We Care Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday at Northern United Place. "The services to people who are homeless are often all chopped up," said organizer Julie Green. "The idea here is sort of to try to get at the whole person."

Services provided included haircuts, flu shots, legal advice, child care and advice on how to get the most value per dollar while grocery shopping. There was plenty of food to eat, provided by Yellowknife Food Rescue and the Yellowknife Co-op. Canadian North donated toiletries while Marks Work Wearhouse, For Women Only and the public donated clothing.

Jenny Fischlin and her team from Vixen salon completed more than 40 haircuts in four hours. Fischlin said she had closed the salon for the day and was happy to be able to give back to the community.

Green was inspired to help the less fortunate by a delegate from Whitehorse at a local anti-poverty conference last year. Bill Thomas told her about Whitehorse Connects – a similar initiative in his community. "We had started to talk about an anti-poverty strategy and I thought that if we could provide services while people are waiting for a policy change it would show them that we know what their needs are and that we wanted to reach out to them and make their lives better in some way," said Green. "A policy change is something that's going to take a long time and it will be a long time before these people see the benefits of that."

The first Yes We Care Day was held in May and Green said there will likely be more such days in the future. "I think people really appreciate it and that's a good incentive to keep it going," she said.

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