BIWAASE’AA program funding cut

Thunder Bay’s BIWAASE’AA program for urban Aboriginal children and others in need is closing down at the end of June due to a lack of funding.
“Our programming currently supports close to 500 children a day in seven local schools,” said Tammy Bobyk, executive director of Shkoday Abinojiiwak Obimiwedoon, which has operated BIWAASE’AA for the past eight years. “Without this funding, we are forced to discontinue the program and leave these children in a vulnerable position. We are deeply saddened that it has come to this and particularly because these children depend on us but we feel that we will have no other option.”
Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada informed the organization at the end of March that it would no longer fund BIWAASE’AA.
Although Shkoday Abinojiiwak Obimiwedoon established partnerships with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal organizations, businesses, local school boards and federal, provincial and municipal organizations to keep BIWAASE’AA operating since the end of March, they were not able to identify long-term, sustainable funding for the program.
“The BIWAASE’AA program has proven to be enormously successful over the years,” said Paul Francis, program manager. “We have the research to prove it, as well as testimonials from many local families who have been helped. This is a positive program that really makes a difference in people’s lives and positively impacts the entire community. By investing in our community’s children, we have been investing in our future. There is no reason why this program should not be funded moving forward.”
BIWAASE’AA requires $700,000 to provide its services to the children and families in need, at a cost of $15 per child per day for the full program and $5 per child per day for the after-school program.
Shkoday Abinojiiwak Obimiwedoon has applied to potential funders for the program, including the province of Ontario, and unsolicited donations have been arriving on a regular basis.
“It seems a heavy burden to put on the shoulders of the province to ask them to largely fund the program when the federal government has completely withdrawn its support,” Bobyk said.
“The unsolicited donations from the community are both generous and encouraging, but without some significant funders coming forward, we have no other choice but to end the program.”