Be A Part Of It!
MISSION STATEMENT
Project North is a not-for-profit organization committed to enhancing and improving the lives of children in Canada's North.
MANDATE
Project North's community-based and national funding initiatives will generate opportunities to provide education and fitness programs that benefit the Inuit youth of today and of the future.
Project North's goal is to galvanize Canadians from coast to coast to coast to look North, become more aware, and lend a hand to support children - one of our country's greatest resources.
About Project North
Who we are
Project North is a not-for-profit organization that is comprised of a group of Canadians who have collectively undertaken to improve the lives of Inuit children by creating and contributing to projects that will raise funds to improve education and offer fitness and recreation opportunities that otherwise would not exist.
Why we do what we do
Project North's philosophy is to ensure that we leave a place better off than the way we found it; in other words to give something back. Its flagship project is the upcoming book: Arctic Kaleidoscope... The People, Wildlife & Ever-Changing Landscape. While carrying out research, photographing and writing, Project North relies heavily on the people of the North to share with us their insight, their passions, their struggles and their hopes and dreams. Giving back by helping their children - and many children of the North - is a way of leaving something positive behind.
Why literacy and fitness/recreation as our giving focus?
A staggering 76% of students in the north leave school before graduating from Grade 12. Inuktitut literacy rates run between 10 and 15 percent in most of the Canadian Arctic. Hospitalization rates for Inuit children with severe respiratory tract infections (primarily from overcrowded living conditions) are the highest in the world. Most striking is that among Inuit youth the suicide rate is 11 times higher than Canada's national average, making young people of Inuit descent among those in the world with the highest suicide rate. Both literacy and sports/fitness and recreation are significant contributors to health, well being, success and positive personal development in later life.
According to Health Canada: "A young person's development is greatly affected by their education, access to nutritious foods and physical recreation..."
As Arctic children and youth are the future stewards of their land, Project North aims to contribute to enhancing their educational capacity and physical well-being in order to better equip them to meet these important challenges as adults.
