REGINA - The Saskatchewan government is committing $400,000 in 2022-23 for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls+ Community Response Fund.
According to the province's news release, this funding will support projects to promote and enhance prevention and build safety for Indigenous women, girls and Two Spirit+ people, their families and communities. It will support at least 10 community projects, with each receiving up to $40,000.
The funding was confirmed at an announcement inside the legislature building Monday. Speaking, Minister of Government Relations Don McMorris said they were looking forward to the projects coming in.
“They’re going to be driven from communities and grassroots organizations, not necessarily from government. That’s the important part of all this,” said McMorris.
He said they anticipate good uptake and that there will be a number of projects they will be able to get off the ground. The hope is this is just the start, and word of mouth would spread among communities about the projects being funded.
“Hopefully this is an ongoing process,” said McMorris,
As for what they hoped to achieve, “I think raising awareness of the issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women, that is priority number one,” said McMorris. Also important was “increasing the education and security within communities.”
“There’s any number of criteria that would say the program is successful, but once we get projects up and running we’ll have a better understanding of that.”
Instrumental in developing the fund and providing input were four Indigenous women: Lori Whiteman, Marlene Bear, Myrna LaPlante and Autumn Larose-Smith. Bear and LaPlante spoke to reporters Monday and were optimistic the fund would make a positive difference.
“I’m hoping it will create awareness, that it will lead to prevention of this ongoing tragedy of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls,” said LaPlante to reporters Monday.
“I think we want to get the message out there, too, that instead of always being reactive we need to start doing preventative work,” said Bear. “And bringing knowledge to the communities that domestic violence is not acceptable anywhere.”
Bear said she had worked in the north and the “resources there are so scarce that I don’t think they even really realize what their communities are going through, because of the lack of resources.”
Applications are open now, with First Nation and Métis communities, organizations in Saskatchewan, and organizations partnering with Indigenous entities all eligible. The intake deadline is Dec. 16.
