Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As my colleague from Frame Lake mentioned, March 8th is International Women’s Day. So today I’d like

to highlight the contribution that the Centre for Northern Families makes to the lives of women and their families in the Northwest Territories. Sponsored by the Yellowknife Women’s Society, the Centre for Northern Families offers important programs and services to an increasingly diverse group of Northerners.

The Yellowknife Women’s Society began in 1988 when a core group of northern women from a wide range of backgrounds saw a need for a drop-in centre where women could gather for support, share ideas, and to work on projects of mutual interest. The Yellowknife Women’s Society opened its doors in 1990 in a small house in Yellowknife’s downtown and quickly became a place women turned to in crisis situations.

For the first five years the society operated on the efforts of volunteers and with no core funding. In 1995 contributions from the GNWT and the federal government allowed the Centre for Northern Families to hire a coordinator and continue to build on the existing programs and services. The growing centre moved to two different sites in 1997 and then to its present larger location later due to increasing need for emergency shelter.

Although membership in the society is limited to women, their partners and children may access any of the services offered by the Centre for Northern Families. The shelter’s name is inclusive and recognizes that healthy families in which both women and men are equally important are a foundational building block for the functional community.

Some of the programming the centre provides does not exist anywhere else in the community. It is deeply involved in health, parenting, employment, housing, and education concerns for northern women. It currently offers an advocacy program, an Inuit sewing circle, a new Canadian and multicultural program, healthy baby and toddler clubs, respite childcare, a teen girls club, a walk-in medical clinic. The programs and services strive to meet the basic needs of marginalized women and their families.

For the last 20 years the goal of the Yellowknife Women’s Society and the Centre for Northern Families has been to empower women so that they can develop their goals, achieve wellness, enjoy equality, and be recognized for the contributions they make to our community. They are governed by principles of tolerance and inclusiveness and try to respond to the needs of people first, instead of a specific programs or philosophies.

The Centre for Northern Families reaches out to a widening circle of people who have come to Yellowknife from across the Northwest Territories, Canada, and around the world. They deserve our continued support, encouragement, and recognition.

I’d like to take this opportunity to encourage Members of this Legislative Assembly…