Community Consultations Coming To Moose Jaw
As part of their 50th anniversary the South Saskatchewan Community Foundation (SSCF) is holding 50 Vital Community Conversations.
This conversation is designed to engage citizens of Moose Jaw in what matters most to their community regarding Parks and Recreation.
Details of the Vital Community Conversation are as follows
Date – Thursday March 21, 2019
Time – 6:30pm
Location – Kinsmen Sportsplex Meeting Room – 855 MacDonald St W
If you are interested in attending or learning more, please contact Parks and
Recreation at 306 694-4447 or email recreation@moosejaw.ca
A second Vital Community Conversation is planned in Moose Jaw on March 28, 2019 from 1 pm to 3 pm at Providence Place (100 - 2nd Avenue NE). This event will include the Spinal Cord Injury Saskatchewan Inc.
To register please contact Larry Carlson at 306 584-2650 or by email larrycarlson@scisask.ca
For more information about the South Saskatchewan Community Foundation visit the website at www.sscf.ca.
To help find out who the SSCF is and what they do the following questions were answered by SSCF’s Executive Director Donna Ziegler.
1. What or who is South Saskatchewan Community Foundation? Can I have some background on your organization?
“The South Saskatchewan Community Foundation (SSCF) serves as a bridge between donors and charities in Regina and in southern Saskatchewan.
We believe in facilitating Saskatchewan philanthropy, supporting local charities, and developing our community so that our home is a more vital, strong, and fair place to live, work, and play.
SSCF is a long-term endowment fund for our community.
In addition to distributing donations throughout the year to worthy causes we pool many visionary philanthropists’ and organizations’ funds – investing them together for a higher return and thus allowing donors to make their charitable grants not just once but year after year.”
2. Why are you coming to Moose Jaw?
“We are coming to Moose Jaw for many reasons. The chief among them is that Moose Jaw is located in the geographic region we serve. SSCF enables donors to make their communities better places to live, work, and play from Davidson west to the Alberta border, east to the Manitoba border, and south to the United States border.
Another reason is that there are many great charities that we work with in Moose Jaw and area, including the ones hosting Vital Community Conversations helping us celebrate our 50th anniversary.”
3. What do you hope to accomplish here?
“With the 50 Vital Community Conversations program we are celebrating SSCF’s 50th Anniversary by working to learn more about what matters in communities and how SSCF and others can help to make a difference. We aim to learn more about the needs in the 300 communities – including seven cities – that we serve in southern Saskatchewan.”
4. One of the big things I and many others hear is they do these community consultations all of the time and really they just either turn into telling people what is happening or simply not listening. Many people feel they are a waste of time. How is your event going to be different?
“The Moose Jaw Vital Community Conversations will be well worth people’s time to attend as they will be informative and engaging sessions.
Furthermore, the input and conversations will not be left in the room that the Vital Community Conversation was held. Rather, each host has been sent a toolkit where they will record different data points from the conversations they host.
All of the input from the Vital Community Conversations will be professionally evaluated by a research team with a report of findings to be released in October 2019. What we learn will guide our actions to meet the needs that matter most and will focus our resources for the greatest impact.”
5. How involved is your organization in Moose Jaw?
“Moose Jaw residents may have heard about the South Saskatchewan Community Foundation from the Moffat Family Fund and their competitive grant program that we help administer.
The Moffat Family Fund has provided a lot of financial resources to many charities within the Moose Jaw and surrounding area. The grant deadline just passed and we will be announcing the successful Moose Jaw and District Area recipients soon.
In 2018, $62,500 was granted from the Moffat Family Fund at SSCF to a number of Moose Jaw charities and this year the grant amount will increase to $90,000, enabling good charity work to continue in Moose Jaw.
6. Do you have anything to add?
“Moose Jaw residents can learn more about this program including a full list of Vital Community Conversations, SSCF, and the Foundation’s work by visiting sscf.ca”.