Help Support Young Women in the Yukon!

Please take a few minutes out of your day for the next couple of weeks and cast a vote in support of our local girls group, Girls North.  They are competing in the Aviva Community Fund contest.  Here is the link where you can read about them and what they hope to do with the funds from Aviva if they win.  

Click here to vote!   You can give them up to 15 votes during the first round, but you can only vote for them once each day.  So please visit the site each day and cast your vote!  Please help them get to the next round of voting!

Here is more information about Girls North and the contest:

This is such an amazing group and they would really use your support!  Registration is very easy. 
Girls Night Out started in Faro Yukon in 2005. We are a girl directed support group for girls aged 11-18 in our community. We meet weekly for workshops, discussion, crafting and networking with other women and groups. In our community of 400, we have 28 past and present members of GNO which represents 100% of girls in Faro during the past 6 years.
Northern girls are different . We come from some of the most isolated places on our planet. Our communities are often riddled with substance abuse, sexual assault, suicide and broken families. Girls from Northern communities in Canada are especially vulnerable to relationship abuse, teenage pregnancy, poor self esteem and often feel isolated and alone in their communities. We want to change this.
We have a dream to expand our program and create girl support groups in every Yukon community. We are expanding the acronym GNO, calling our project GNORTH, or Girls North. Eventually we hope to spread throughout Canada's North.
The first phase of our project is to secure a building, a space where we can work to launch GNORTH. We have chosen a space that is close to our school and our recreation centre, that is accesible to the girls in our community. We need funds to secure the space for our use, and to complete renovations to create a space that suits our needs. We need to purchase paint, furniture, computers, and need to install a small kitchen. This will be GNORTH's headquarters for the next several years while we expand throughout the Yukon. Our local girls will be fully involved in the transformation of the space and will work as youth ambassadors in the GNORTH office. We hope to be completed renovations and have a ribbon cutting ceremony to open the space in the spring of 2012.
The second phase of our project is to create GNORTH support groups in all 12 Yukon communities. Our group will travel around to meet women leaders and role models, and to tell girls about GNORTH. We will hold rallys to introduce girls to the concept of girl only support groups. We will explore individual community dynamics and help to find appropriated spaces to hold GNORTH meetings. We will start a website so that we can generate members and create awareness through media.
We will require funds to assist with our travel expenses, for food and supplies for the rallies, for GNORTH jackets to help with our group visibility, and for small start up grants to get community groups going. Alot of this work will be done by commited community volunteers, and through in kind donations by local business. Our goal will be to have each group be self sustainable, participating in fundraising activities and pursuing local funding oppurtunities. We hope to have GNORTH groups established in each Yukon community by the spring of 2013.
The final phase of our project is to host a gathering/retreat/conference to bring all the women and girls of GNORTH together to network, share ideas and learn together how we can create impact not only in the North but across Canada. We will need funds for a facility rental, a facilitator, food and activity expenses. Our goal is to host this retreat during the spring of 2013. We hope to host a similar retreat every year to help our organization expand and grow stronger.
Please vote for our project, you will be contributing the lives of Northern girls, girls who will become strong, powerful Yukon women that will work to create positive change in Northern communities across Canada. Your vote will support our mission to help girls discover their talents and beauty and strength, to lead their communities forward towards healthier futures.