Grants available for rural women to make positive changes

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

Grants are now available to rural and farm women who are willing to take action and make positive changes in their communities.

The main goal of the Rural Women's Issues Committee of Saskatchewan (RWICS) Action Grant program is to enable women to address the main concerns of their specific communities, create a vision and a plan, and then put that plan into action locally. Further steps include interacting on a provincial or national level to realize those visions on a larger scale.

RWICS released a report in 2004 entitled "Rural, Remote and Northern Women's Health," encompassing a study conducted across Canada. The report contained a number of recommendations to increase the body of research pertaining to rural and farm woman.

It was found that the role of rural and farm women often consists of a triple or quadruple workload, including duties such as care giving, managing farm employment, helping on the farm themselves, looking after the household, and contributing to the community.

One of the key concerns identified was that the health of rural and farm women is often adversely affected by where they live. "Negative effects such as lack of confidentiality and fewer choices for services play a part," said Joanne Havelock of RWICS. "In rural, remote areas, women are also more dependent on primary industries, which tend to experience a variation in income and often income difficulties. This has proven to be very stressful for women."

To further explore the area, RWICS organized several workshops that were held in the province over the past two years. These workshops looked at the concerns brought on by the report and uncovered further challenges that rural and farm women commonly face.

Among the topics discussed were leadership and networking among women, focusing on caring for themselves, the farm income problem, community kitchens, the environment and recycling, and the need to build links between farmers and city consumers, seniors and youth of all cultures.

"The women involved showed a great appreciation to get together, talk out these issues, and think about what they might do to act on them in a positive way to create a positive change," Havelock said.

"Our intent in providing the grant program is to give women in those communities an opportunity to take that action and start making those positive changes required for their local community."

Grants vary from $250 to $500 per project. "With these amounts, we are not expecting a huge initiative, but some local action that relates to the issues identified in the workshops," she added.

The type of projects that will receive funding will be focused on creating positive action towards a situation that enhances the wellbeing of women and their communities.

Havelock says it is important to give rural women a chance to do something that focuses on their needs. "Rural women are doing a lot of things for other people. I think they appreciate that role, but we need to look at issues from their viewpoint," she stated.

"These grants will give them an opportunity to work locally and to address some of the issues facing rural communities that have been identified as being significant."

Over 300 recommendations were generated by participants at the workshops. The report from the exercise is posted on the Prairie Women's Health Centre of Excellence website at www.pwhce.ca. Readers are also able to look at the specific report for their particular area.

Rural and farm women who are interested in applying for the grants can contact Joanne Havelock at (306) 585-5727 or e-mail pwhce@uregina.ca. A short application package will be sent to them.

The final deadline to apply for funding is September 14.

"It is important that rural and farm women have a voice and that the diversity between them is used to promote positive changes in their local communities," Havelock said. "This program is giving women the opportunity to do just that."

For more information, contact:

Joanne Havelock, Policy Analyst
Rural Women's Issues Committee of Saskatchewan
Phone: (306) 585-5727