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Honouring Rural Canada's Young Leaders Give a tip of the hat to a special young person in your community. Nominations for the first Young Leaders in Rural Canada Awards are now being accepted. Announced at the National Rural Youth Conference in May, the awards, which are sponsored by the Rural Secretariat, will be presented to winners in three categories: Innovation, Leadership, and Partnerships. Nominations are open to youth between the ages of 18 and 29 who live in Canada's rural, remote and northern communities. The deadline for submissions is Monday, Jan. 12, 2004. Nomination forms and more information are available on the web at: www.rural.gc.ca or by calling the Rural Secretariat's toll-free line at 1-888-781-2222. Anne Gabriel, Manager, Rural Dialogue, (613) 759-7260 Good news for Badlands Twenty-one young people from Kincaid, Saskatchewan, will graduate from a "Better Than Best Youth Leadership Program" at a special ceremony on Friday, Dec. 12 at the Kincaid Central School. Fifty-three youth from Assiniboia, Limerick, Bengough, Ogema and Mossbank graduated from the same program earlier in the year. The youth, between the ages of 13 and 18, took part in intense leadership training offered by Badlands Recreation Association Inc. and John Spencer & Associates. The pilot program, funded in part by the Canadian Agricultural Rural Communities Initiative, offered the youth an opportunity to undergo leadership training, followed by the implementation of four projects (in Assiniboia/Limerick, Mossbank, Bengough/Ogema and Kincaid), the development of strategic action plans, and a final report evaluating the projects. Officials say this leadership program has been an overwhelming success for those who participated and believe it can be implemented in other areas across the country. Marjorie Nagel, Badlands Recreation
Association Inc., (306) 354-7789 Spreading the 4-H message Saskatchewan young people are spreading the word about the benefits of 4-H programs after their recent second annual Provincial 4-H Leader and Senior Member Conference in Saskatoon. More than 70 volunteer leaders and senior members of Saskatchewan 4-H, along with representatives of agricultural rural communities in the province, attended the sessions, which featured guest speakers and workshops. Funded in part by the Canadian Agricultural Rural Communities Initiative, the conference was designed to give the 4-H members, who are between the ages of 16 and 21, the tools they need to spread the message about 4-H, the value it adds to the local economy and the social support it offers to rural members. In many rural communities, 4-H offers social and cultural development opportunities its members may not receive in school. AnnMarie Nielsen Griffin, Communications and Programming 4-H Specialist, (306) 933-5102 The 'heart' of the matter An innovative project designed to help stressed-out rural families received a national honour in November. Au coeur des familles agricoles (At The Heart of Farm Families) received the Canadian Agri-Food Award of Excellence for Voluntarism at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. It was one of only five winners of the annual award. The Montérégie, Quebec-based project was honoured for its work in training local informal caregivers to develop listening skills and provide support and referrals to farm and rural families in need. The non-profit organization, which received funding from the Canadian Agricultural Rural Communities Initiative, grew out of a pilot project developed to create a mutual support network for farm families in the agricultural community. Esther Côté, Rural Secrétariat, (418)
648-4820, ext. 313 A sympathetic ear Economic and marital stresses, sickness or business pressures are all hard enough to deal with, but they're often made worse when they're combined with the isolation that can accompany life in rural and remote areas. But Ontario residents have someone to call: The Farm Line. Launched after the 1998 ice storm by the Ontario Farm Women's Network, the toll-free service offers confidential bilingual support by three trained part-time staff members. Often, says co-ordinator Susan Klein-Swormink, callers just need someone to talk to, though staff do make referrals to debt consultation and mediation services, personal counsellors or other needed services. Funded in part by the Canadian Rural Partnership, the Farm Line has also launched a web site -- www.thefarmline.ca -- which provides information on services for rural youth, a resource directory and coming events. The Farm Line is open Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., and is available Ontario-wide at 1-888-451-2903. Susan Klein-Swormink, co-ordinator, (613) 448-3436 A driving force Eight residents of the northwest region of Manitoba are on their way to jobs as heavy equipment operators, thanks to a new project developed by the Northwest Manitoba Community Futures Development Corporation (CFDC). Officials with the Northwest CFDC launched the program a year ago to not only help the local unemployed, but also to answer the need for more trained heavy equipment operators to handle major construction projects in the region. With the help of Manitoba Advanced Education and Training and Timberwolf Trucking, trainees spent the two-week, 160-hour course learning how to operate dozers, loaders, graders and excavators, as well as the basic functions of the equipment and workplace safety. More courses are being planned in the future. Yasmin Birch, Regional Tourism Coordinator, Northwest CFDC, (204) 356-2489, ext. 5
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