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Community projects compete Field Law Community Fund launches first year of funding for groups in the NWT
Lyndsay Herman
Northern News Services
Published Monday, August 26, 2013
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Eight programs in the NWT are vying for $15,000 in funding from the Field Law Community Fund program.
As of press deadline, the project with the highest number of votes was Sod for Soccer, a Fort Resolution project where organizers are hoping to get enough money to put sod on a community soccer field.
"The kids love soccer here," said Vanessa Sanderson, recreation programmer for the Hamlet of Fort Resolution. "It's the only sport they want to play."
Fort Resolution sends three to four teams of players aged 10 and older to tournaments in Hay River and Alberta, but the teams can only practise indoors on a gym floor since there is no outdoor field, said Sanderson.
Sanderson said there is also hope in the community that a sod field will mean the community can host soccer tournaments in the near future, as it did "years and years ago."
This is the first year Field Law has launched the Community Fund Program, which has allocated $30,000 to Calgary-based projects, $30,000 for Edmonton-based projects, and $15,000 for projects in the NWT out of the law firm's Yellowknife branch.
One or more projects may receive between $1,000 and the maximum funds available in their region.
The winners are chosen based on votes collected at the Field Law Community Fund website, open until Aug. 31, and the final determinations are made by a panel of judges.
Sod for Soccer, Spa Night, and For the Love of Food, a program the Hay River Youth Centre hopes to launch which would teach youth about cooking, grocery shopping, nutrition and health, are the only programs out of the eight applying for funding which are centred outside Yellowknife.
Melinda Laboucan started organizing Spa Night in Fort Good Hope in 2008 and has received funds from the Department of Education, Culture, and Employment, Yamoga Land Corporation and Imperial Oil to keep the program well-supplied.
She said the funds she's applied for through the Field Law Community Program will help bring an acupuncturist to the community and keep them stocked in supplies.
"Spa night is focused on mothers and young teen girls," Laboucan said. "Our goal is just to provide that safe environment and just to kind of give them time out for themselves."
Since 2008, Spa Night has evolved into the Fort Good Hope Spa/Vision Night and Holistic Healing.
Doris Manuel, program co-ordinator for Fort Good Hope Victim Services, works with spa night attendees to build vision boards, collages of pictures and writing which identify personal goals.
Gloria Manuel offers up her massage skills and the program now has a massage chair and a massage table.
In the fall, the program, which runs on Wednesday evenings, also teams up with a craft night
Laboucan said some nights run until 10 p.m. or midnight and attendance ranges from three to 29 women.
"Every week is totally different," she said. "It's just time for the women to get together, hang out with each other."
Voting for the projects opened on July 25. The winners of the prize money will be announced next month.
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