FOXY gets $1 million prize
Sexual health program to use new funding to expand program into Nunavut and Yukon
Daron Letts
Northern News Services
Published Friday, December 12, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A fourth R has been added to the three Rs of education in Yellowknife, thanks in part to a $1 million prize awarded to the FOXY peer leader program on Wednesday night.
FOXY peer leaders Makenzie Zouboules of Yellowknife, left, Brianna Shae of Norman Wells and Jessie Shaw of Yellowknife hold up the $1 million over-sized cheque presented to the NWT-based organization as part of the Arctic Inspiration Prize during an awards ceremony in downtown Ottawa on Wednesday evening. - Fred Cattroll/AIP photo |
In addition to reading, writing and arithmetic, girls and boys in NWT high schools will receive credit for learning about relationships – both with their own bodies and interpersonal – as part of the FOXY curriculum.
A crowd of FOXY representatives, which stands for "fostering open expression among youth," were presented with the Arctic Inspiration Prize by ArcticNet during a ceremony held at the Shaw Centre in downtown Ottawa on Wednesday evening.
Some of the $1 million will be used to expand FOXY into Nunavut and the Yukon as well as to adapt its sexual health and leadership programs to include all genders, according to FOXY project leader Nancy MacNeill.
"We're looking forward to making FOXY available to youth of all genders in all three territories," she said, adding the expansion will get underway in the new year. "It's not just our victory. This is a victory for people all around the North. Better education benefits us all."
FOXY introduced the academic credit program for girls in the NWT last year, but will expand it to include boys in the new year, she added.
FOXY was nominated for the prize by Premier Bob McLeod.
ArcticNet is a non-profit organization with a mandate to study the impacts of climate change and modernization in the coastal Canadian Arctic. It is funded by the Government of Canada through the Networks of Centres of Excellence program, a joint initiative of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Industry Canada.
The FOXY funding came just in time.
It costs about $350,000 a year to cover FOXY's current operating costs and run its programming, including the annual retreat, which costs around $100,000 to stage, and workshops in 10 to 15 communities across the territory.
The current budget was covered up to April with $250,000 from the group's main funder, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and one-time contribution agreements from the departments of Municipal and Community Affairs and Health and Social Services, and some private sponsorship.
This summer, the Public Health Agency of Canada announced it was restructuring and may not commit to continued support for the program.
Since January 2012, FOXY has reached more than 350 young women in more than 20 NWT communities through 30 workshops and two peer leadership retreats, each of which was attended by approximately two dozen participants.
"We have many more girls apply than we can take," said Candice Lys, FOXY executive director.
Fast-growing organization
FOXY began in January 2012 as a project of the Institute for Circumpolar Health Research and incorporated as a non-profit organization in October.
The group leads a workshop series in NWT high schools and an annual week-long leadership retreat for teen girls at Blachford Lake Lodge that is accredited in the NWT education system.
Girls earn two credits at the Grade 10 level for participating in the retreat and another two credits at the Grade 11 level for the completion of a self-driven community project.
Students develop the community project and implement it back home in the fall following the retreat, with guidance from a local mentor.
"It's about helping them realize that they're leaders within their own community and that they're experts in their own community," said Lys. "We support them from afar, as well."
Using traditional moose-hide beading, drama, digital storytelling, photography and music as means for expression, the program encourages girls to get to know themselves better through art.
The $1-million prize will help hire a new facilitation team of men contracted to help develop the new male FOXY program, said MacNeill.
Partners in Nunavut and the Yukon have already signed on, she added.
"I think we have a really solid crew," she said.
