Support the Friendship Centre Movement - Wildfire Response
Every year Friendship Centres across Canada face the impacts of climate change and need to respond to flooding, wildfires, and other climate-related emergencies. For each emergency, Friendship Centres are there to respond and support in community driven and culturally relevant ways. Financial support for Friendship Centres’ emergency planning and response is crucial in the immediate responses
Indigenous Emergency Management funding for on-reserve is not available to urban Indigenous communities or organizations who take in evacuees from on-reserve communities providing shelter, food, personal hygiene supplies, daycare, while expanding their programs and services to accommodate the influx of people. Friendship Centres are forced to rely on donations and take from other programs that are already underfunded to draw immediate supports.
Currently, Friendship Centres in Alberta, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories are responding to the needs arising from wildfires. Hay River, NT was evacuated to Yellowknife with the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Council of Friendship Centres (NT/NU) stating with the influx of evacuees, they require around $50,000 to help supply evacuees with gift cards. The Aboriginal Friendship Centres of Saskatchewan has stated there are over 15,000 evacuees with immediate needs of fuel, accommodations, and food. In Alberta, Friendship Centres are acting as evacuation shelters. Maniwaki Friendship Centre in Maniwaki, Quebec is providing food and clothing to evacuees.
Friendship Centres are a lifeline to many outside of emergency situation, even more so during emergencies, and they require emergency response funding to be prepared to respond immediately.
How you can support:
Donations! Financial, food, clothing, etc. Find your local Friendship Centre to see what kind of donations they are taking.
Here are links to Friendship Centre and Provincial/Territorial Associations financial donation pages.