Dear Partners and Supporters, We hope that as you are reading this, you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. In these last weeks, we have seen great suffering and we have seen great heroism. All of us have felt the impacts of COVID-19 at home, in our places of work, our places of worship and in our communities. Northern Bridge has also felt the impacts of the pandemic.

Northern Bridge has received funding from the Canada Summer Jobs Program! As a result, we have have hired 6 students to work in 2 different communities from the ending of June to mid-August. In both Hatchet Lake First Nation (Wollaston Lake, SK) and Fond Du Lac First Nation, SK the three students in each community will be working with the youth and planning daily programming. Follow us on social media to learn more about their adventures!

Today a bunch of us walked some little kids out to “The Rock”. It’s a swimming spot on the island that the kids love, because the rocks that go into the water drop off very suddenly, and it makes for good jumping fun. There were probably four of us, and about six kids. Brittany, seven years old, wasn’t a strong swimmer, so she borrowed a life jacket from someone.

Baking and decorating sugar cookies, placing the angel on top of the tree and arranging the figures in the crèche are some of my fondest childhood memories. It is not the gifts that I remember the most but the presence of family and friends gathered to celebrate the Birth of Christ.

As part of NBCP’s Experiential Learning Program, a group of students spent two-weeks this past summer, immersed in the life and culture of an indigenous community in the northern Saskatchewan reserve of Fond du Lac. One of the distresses that almost every program participant commented on was very limited access to fresh produce.

As part of the Stronger Communities Program, a group of six professionals, representing Northern Bridge Community Partnership, have recently returned from Fond Du Lac, SK. Led by Michael Bechard

We seek: An inspirational fundraising leader and role model, who can develop and implement strategy and be accountable for achieving fundraising targets, primarily at the major gift level.

It’s time to take a step forward to create bridges of trust with Canada’s Indigenous Peoples. Our Experiential Learning Program – a youth connecting with Indigenous youth program –is just one of the many ways we are helping to build bridges.

Why not create a Community Event in support of NBCP? It’s a good way to bring like-minded people together for a great cause.

It’s that time of year again. Before Christmas last year, NBCP undertook a campaign to collect art supplies for the Indigenous children in the North. It was quite successful, but the supply has dwindled to almost nothing.

Indigenous people in Canada are faced with complex issues that are often intertwined. The most tragic of all is the high rate of suicides among Indigenous youth. A 2016 Statistics Canada report found that suicide rates are five to seven times higher

While the term ‘connectivity’ is generally associated with the Internet and Wi-Fi strength, when one travels north to Fond-du-Lac, our students felt more deeply connected to people and the environment in the north.

In 2010, I made a promise that I would be back. I kept that promise, and in 2018 I did go back. Even though both visits were short, I developed an endless love for the indigenous people I had come to know.

It was our second night on the island after we had all turned in for the night. At some point in the wee hours of the morning, I left my tent to use the facilities and was surprised to find two girls from Black Lake sitting at our campfire.

Following a pre-Christmas campaign in London, ON to collect art supplies for indigenous children in northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba, boxes were recently shipped to Christine Maracle in The Pas, MB, filled with all sorts of crafty items.