SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Yellowknife Association for Community Living is $7,000 richer thanks to the United Way.
Business services team members Bertha Taylor, left, and Julie White accept a $7,000 cheque from United Way NWT campaign co-ordinator Jacq Brass on Monday afternoon. - photo courtesy of the Yellowknife Association for Community Living
United way funding recipients
- Food Rescue Yellowknife
- Aklavik Indian Band
- Community Garden Society of Inuvik
- Ecology North
- Food First Foundation
- Fort Smith Ecumenical Group Soup Kitchen/Food Bank
- Girl Guides of Canada Yellowknife
- Hay River Committee for Persons with Disabilities
- Ingamo Hall Friendship Centre
- Inuvik Emergency Warming Centre Society
- Inuvik Food Bank
- Inuvik Homeless Shelter Advisory Board
- Inuvik Youth Centre Society
- K'alemi Dene School Cubs
- Keeper's Program – Deh Gah Elementary and Secondary Schools
- Northern Youth Leadership
- Pehdzeh Ki First Nations
- Hay River Soup Kitchen
- Yellowknife Association for Community Living
- Yellowknife Women's Society
- YWCA of the NWT
|
The association received the donation as part of United Way NWT's Community Investment Fund on Monday. Lynn Elkin, executive director for the association, said the money will be used for its community inclusion programs, which help individuals with intellectual disabilities attend local events and increase overall inclusion in the community.
"They need a higher ratio of support than other people might," she said. "They need an extra hand, and so this extra funding has allowed us to make sure that everybody gets a chance to be involved."
Other Yellowknife-based charities which received funding this year include Ecology North, Food Rescue, Yellowknife Women's Society, Northern Youth Leadership, the YWCA of the NWT and Food First Foundation, Girl Guides of Canada Yellowknife and K'alemi Dene School Cubs.
According a news release from the United Way, the Community Investment Fund gives annually to non-profit organizations in the Northwest Territories. The amount of funding relies mostly on donations through workplace giving campaigns.
This year, $170,000 in grant money is being awarded to non-profits across the territory.
According to United Way, the applicants to the grant program increased by almost 50 per cent with a total request for funding reaching $285,000.
Project director Ali McConnell with Northern Youth Leadership said her charity received $7,500. Her organization is dedicated to delivering programming that develops young leaders in the territory. In the summer, participating youth will have the opportunity to attend outdoor activities – which the funding has made possible.
"In June, we are going to take a group of girls aged 11 to 13 into the Mackenzie Mountains for some hiking, and then we are going to do a boys paddling trip at the end of July," she said.
"They are going to paddle 130 kilometres from Behchoko to Yellowknife. At the end of August, girls are doing a seven-day paddle in the South Slave."
YWCA executive director Lyda Fuller said the $7,500 in funding will be put toward food security in the charity's family housing program.
"So working with a dietitian and others to help families increase their protein intake and find new ways to use country food and other food to support their families," she explained.
