INNISFAIL – The town’s revitalized Welcoming & Inclusive Community Committee has landed an important provincial grant that will support the group’s ongoing mission to promote multiculturism in the community and educate citizens on how best to confront racism.
Last August, the committee (WICC) heard about the province’s Multiculturalism, Indigenous and Inclusion Grant Program and immediately applied for funding before a Sept. 1 deadline.
The WICC based their grant application for the need to hold community events that would include multicultural participation to demonstrate community inclusion and build greater awareness and understanding of diversity.
As well, provincial program officials were told that funds were needed for training and education to increase cultural awareness and to help others gain knowledge of the impact of discrimination as a barrier to participating in the community.
On March 25, the WICC was told its application was successful in obtaining a $25,000 grant, and is now ready to launch a new array of initiatives to promote an inclusive community.
The new and fourth WICC, which has been working in the community since 2005, was launched in Innisfail following last June’s initially controversial but ultimately successful anti-racism rally.
“This (grant) allows us to do more events, training and education and be able to get resources for the community of Innisfail and area, and we can actually run some multicultural training. These are the things that we actually did,” said Donna Arnold, a member of WICC who prepared the successful grant application. She is also the executive director of Innisfail’s Henday Association for Lifelong Learning.
“We will be working with community supporters, experts, elders and partners,” she said. “We want to be able to work in every aspect of the community.”
The committee will be having its next meeting on April 12. The committee now has 22-members, a big jump from less than 10 it attracted during its early months of last year. There are representatives from local businesses, sports organizations, schools and even from the RCMP.
“I think the committee membership, the people we have within the committee, is a stellar group. There are diverse backgrounds, and with each of those individuals they have their own connections in the community, which makes it a special group,” said Jason Heistad, co-chair of the WICC, who is proud of the positive community-building work the WICC has already achieved since last summer. “I think this grant will help us further that endeavor in the work we are doing.”
Arnold also noted WICC will soon launch its new website. For more information on the WICC go to its Facebook page called Innisfail Welcoming & Inclusive Community Committees #4.
