Dear Editor
Once again our community is blessed with all the beautiful colours of autumn. The summer of 2011 is a memory as we begin to think about the cold winter that lies in the near future. The nights are already cold and our community's homeless people are still sleeping outside.
We have a strong community, I know there are good people out there who care. The Indian Métis Friendship Center opened a temporary shelter last year and they provide a free breakfast. We have the food bank. There have also been a few proposals brought forth for a permanent shelter and the city is willing to support one project.
The next step is to work together to come up with one plan. We need to work together to share ideas and come up with a vision of what is needed for our homeless.
I am a First Nations student in the Aboriginal Community Development Program and I would like to volunteer my services and support in any way I can to help this process. I also feel I have a direct connection to many of these people, having walked down some of the roads they have, and by communicating with them on a daily basis. I believe their voices are important too; we need to ask them what they need.
Please allow me to do my part, whatever it may be. Surely there are others in the community willing to work to meet this need. Let's work together as one community and move forward.
Roberta Swindler
North Battleford
rgswindler@hotmail.com
