One of the initiatives supported by FCSS is the graffiti clean-up project. Pictured here are city officials along with some of the young people who volunteered their time to create and paint a mural downtown this past summer.
Fourteen local organizations will be receiving funds for programming in the new year.
Council has approved Lloydminster Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) grant allocations for 2024, with a total of $385,000 going to non-profit organizations that provide preventative social services.
Of the funds dispersed, 80 per cent comes from the Alberta government, and 20 per cent from the City.
“Lloydminster does a hybrid model in which some of the funds go out in a community grant and then we use some of the funds as part of the delivery of preventative social services,” said Lancaster, noting a portion of the funds are used to administer city-run programs and initiatives as well.
Some of these include the community directory, youth volunteer graffiti clean-up program, block party program, the neighbourhood connector and some community events such as the volunteer breakfast and senior information fairs. For a full list or more information visit Lloydminster.ca/fcss.
“It’s a big challenge because there are so many organizations out there that are doing such great work and there is such great need in the community,” said Patrick Lancaster, manager of social programs and services at the City of Lloydminster.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Lloydminster will receive $40,000, Catholic Social Services: $30,000, Inclusion Lloydminster: $10,000, and Libbie Young: $32,000.
The Interval Home Society will receive two grants of $40,000 each. One to support the Lloydminster Community Youth Centre Outreach Program, and the other for their Family Violence Prevention Program.
The Lloydminster & Area Brain Injury Society has been allocated $5,000, the Lloydminster Native Friendship Centre: $40,000, and Lloydminster Sexual Assault Services: $20,000.
Midwest Family Connections will receive two amounts: $45,000 to fund their first steps program, and $3,000 toward their maternal mental health initiative.
Residents in Recovery Society will receive $32,000, The Olive Tree Community Centre: $30,000, and Walking Through Grief Society: $18,000.
Lancaster says the allocation process is carried out by a committee that is made up of seven volunteers and one member of council.
They go through a scoring process, considering factors such as if there is a solid need for the program if it is preventative in nature and in line with the FCSS program principles, and if it is presented in a way that makes sense.
“After they’ve reviewed them, there’s a follow-up meeting for the group to get together and go through one application at a time and determine if a project is going to be funded, and if so, how much,” said Lancaster.
“It takes a lot of time on their part, and again, we’re thankful to have those community eyes on this and folks who are willing to make a good recommendation to council.”
The FCSS grants are vital to many non-profit organizations that offer life-changing preventative social services in the Border City.
“An anecdote that we hear a lot, talking with other FCSS teams is, sometimes we’ll see people who are in the river and they’re struggling against the current, and while there’s a place for the folks who are going to help pull people out of the current or pull them ashore and take care of them,” said Lancaster.
“FCSS is more interested with going upstream, trying to figure out why are folks ending up in the stream, to begin with, and seeing if there’s ways that we can keep them from falling in.”
The programs funded through these grants serve a wide range of people from various backgrounds and age groups.
“We’ve got programs that are targeted at families with young children, we have programs that are targeted at youth. We’ve got programs that are targeted at seniors. Just sort of a very broad range,” said Lancaster.
The Lloydminster Interval Home Society is one of the recipients and will be using the funds for two of their programs, one aimed at youth.
The Lloydminster Community Youth Centre is a recreation-based drop-in centre for youth ages 12-18. They offer transportation to and from, and meals as well.
“The funding will go directly to program costs, so things like the activities that we’re doing, food, transportation is a huge cost of ours because we actually transport the youth to the youth centre and back home again,” said Angela Rooks-Trotzuk, Interval Home Society CEO.
“Everything we do at LCYC is infused with fun, but we also do educational programming with them. So it’s not just a drop-in centre.”
“We actually have education, information and referrals for the youth that may be struggling with different issues. We talk about things like healthy relationships, healthy dating relationships, harm reduction.”
Another program run by the Interval Home Society that FCSS funded is their family violence prevention program.
“It’s really about educating the community about the issue of gender-based violence and domestic violence. So we’re out in the community doing presentations, again, in the realm of prevention. The more we educate people, the higher chance we have of decreasing incidents of domestic violence,” said Rooks-Trotzuk.
This round of grants is one of three yearly grant programs for non-profit organizations that FCSS administers. There are currently two other grant opportunities that are open for application.
“The safe and healthy communities grant, and that one is related to programs dealing with addictive substances, and the Saskatchewan Lotteries Community Grant, which is for projects that involve sport, culture or recreation,” said Lancaster.
For more information or to apply go to Lloydminster.ca/grants.
