Reported Funding Extension For Friendship Centres

Reported Funding Extension For Friendship Centres

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 12:35

Some good news is coming out of Ottawa for friendship centres across the country.

The federal government has apparently announced a six-year extension to the urban multipurpose Aboriginal youth centre program.

Ron Woytowich, director of Kikinahk Friendship Centre in La Ronge, says he heard the news yesterday in Question Period.

Woytowich says the development comes as a relief to organizations like his, which rely on the money to keep the doors open at night.

“It allows us to be open every evening, seven days a week. We’ve got about 700 kids that are registered and about 100 that are there every night. It’s the funding that allows us to have staff and keep the place open,” he says.

Woytowich adds that he and others are also optimistic that the federal government has heard their pleas for increased core funding, and that adjustments will be made in next year’s budget.