EDMONTON – Little Warriors Be Brave Ranch, Canada’s first treatment centre for child victims of sexual abuse, has been denied funding from the Alberta government.
The Little Warriors organization applied for $400,000 from the province’s Community Facility Enhancement Program (CFEP), and $250,000 from the province’s Other Initiatives Program (OIP).
The OIP funds were requested to help with the purchase of the site for the Be Brave Ranch.
Little Warriors recently received a letter from the province stating that the $650,000 in requested funding for the treatment centre was not available.
“We are shocked and devastated by this news,” says Glori Meldrum, founder and chair of Little Warriors. “We have been doing everything in our power to build the Be Brave Ranch for our kids.”
In the letter - sent from the offices of the Minister of Culture, Community and Voluntary Services, and the Minister of Human Services – Meldrum was told the CFEP and OIP fund hundreds of community projects annually but continue to receive more requests than they can accommodate. She was advised that many worthwhile projects cannot be supported, and grant funding for her project is not available at this time.
“We know that the government of Alberta provides funding for the rehabilitation centers for sex offenders, but we have been denied funding for the victims that are left behind,” says Meldrum.
August 2012, Little Warriors put a deposit down to secure the location of the Be Brave Ranch, a 40-acre lot in rural central Alberta. If the organization can come up with enough funding, the Ranch will become a retreat and treatment centre for young survivors. Each child would spend 30 days there, in a program developed specifically for them.
Little Warriors is a national charitable organization that focuses on educating adults about how to help prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse. For more information about Little Warriors and the Be Brave Ranch, visit www.littlewarriors.ca.
After contacting the government for a comment on the funding decision, Global News received the following statement via email.
"The application for the Little Warriors ranch remains open with Alberta Culture. Some additional information has been requested of Little Warriors before the application can be processed," explained John Tuckwell, a spokesperson with the Ministry of Culture.
© Global News. A division of Shaw Media Inc., 2013.