Yukon provides funding to projects aiming to address violence against Indigenous women and girls

Six Yukon-based community organizations will receive $200,000 in funding from the Prevention of Violence against Aboriginal Women Fund, split among them and their initiatives aiming to address violence against Indigenous women and girls, over the next two years.

The following are the selected projects:

• Sally and Sisters/Soeurs of the Yukon Aboriginal Women’s Council, which will receive $50,000 from 2021 to 2023, seeks to offer a welcoming, safe and sober space with hot meals for women and their children twice per week over the lunch hour.
• The Safe Place of the Victoria Faulkner Women’s Centre, which will get $50,000 from 2021 to 2023, aims to provide low-barrier, after-hours and weekend-facilitated drop-in programming with nutritious meals for women and their children.
• The Women’s Circles for Connection of Champagne and Aishihik First Nation, which will be entitled to $25,000 from 2021 to 2022, seeks to promote social connections and support within women’s circles in Haines Junction and the Takhini River Subdivision.
• Kluane First Nation’s Women’s Land Based, Traditional and Community Healing: Regaining Our Voices and Telling Our Stories, which will receive $25,000 from 2021 to 2022, intends to build long-term support, safety and skills for the women and families within the First Nation.
• Elder in the School of the Teen Parent Access to Education Society, which will get $25,000 from 2021 to 2022, seeks to offer opportunities for students to spend time with an Elder one day per week.
• Rising Above Violence of the Watson Lake Elders Society, which will be entitled to $25,000 from 2021 to 2022, aims to provide monthly luncheons for Aboriginal women to gather, share space, teach and learn about violence towards Aboriginal women and about the possible ways to mitigate this problem within the community of Watson Lake.

The Prevention of Violence against Aboriginal Women Fund, developed in 2004, seeks to offer financial support to Indigenous women’s organizations, equality-seeking organizations, registered societies and First Nations governments, and to address the disproportionate rates of violence faced by Indigenous women and girls, said the news release.

The Government of Yukon Women’s Directorate administers the fund, while an independent adjudication panel of Indigenous women assesses initiatives based on the fund’s criteria. Interested groups can apply for a maximum funding of $25,000 for a one-year project or $50,000 for a two-year project.

This announcement is a part of the territorial government’s effort to support grassroots organizations and First Nations governments in establishing community-led solutions to the issue of violence against Indigenous women and girls, said Jeanie McLean, Yukon’s minister responsible for the women’s directorate, in the news release.

“We are committed to continuing to work with our community partners and First Nations governments to make existing funding for the prevention of violence more readily accessible to communities,” said McLean.