The West Kootenay EcoSociety’s Farms to Friends program is among the recipients of over $800,000 from the Columbia Basin Trust’s Social Grants program.
The grants, which fund 42 projects in the Columbia Basin, are for projects that improve quality of life and enhance social well-being.
The EcoSociety will receive $35,000 for its program that delivers fresh food boxed to low-income families and seniors.
Other recipients in the West Kootenay include:
• The Kalein Hospice Society, which receives $20,000 for its Nav-CARE program that matches trained volunteers with seniors living at home who have serious illness or frailty.
• The Circle of Indigenous Nations Society, which was granted $40,000 to develop and deliver local Indigenous cultural awareness training for community-based social service agencies.
• The Kootenay Brain Injury Association, which will use $15,000 to expand intervention, counselling and services with art and music therapy for people living with brain injuries. The association also received $3,500 for its program that reduces social isolation.
• Castlegar and District Community Services’s Girl Talk program, which was funded $35,000 to offer programming for girls ages nine to 12 focused on physical, cognitive, social and emotional health.
• Kaslo’s North Kootenay Lake Community Services Society, which will use $23,250 to offer weekly early years program designed to enhance social connections for families with children up to the age of six.
• Nakusp’s Arrow and Slocan Lakes Community Services was awarded two grants.
The first, a $142,215 grant, will fund its Value-added Community Works program that helps people with barriers to employment find work.
The second is a $23,250 grant to its Expanded Men’s Outreach program, which provides anti-violence services for men.
A number of smaller grants were also awarded. Recipients include:
The Kootenay Family Place ($2,000), Creston’s SQx Danza ($5,000), South Kootenay Lake Community Service Society ($5,000), Kaslo’s Hospice Society of North Kootenay Lake ($4,200), Nelson at its Best ($2,500), Nelson Community Services ($5,000), the Nelson Police Department’s Restorative Justice Program ($4,990), Trail Family and Individual Resources Centre Society ($3,750), the Trail Association for Community Living ($4,725) and the Kootenay Career Development Society ($5,000).
