- Date
- mardi 1 octobre 2024
Avalanche Canada partners with MEC to make AST courses more accessible to all Canadians.
Avalanche Canada is happy to announce the MEC Avalanche Safety Grant for the fourth consecutive year. The MEC Avalanche Safety Grant helps non-profit organizations serving marginalized communities provide avalanche safety training.
We recognize that there are many people in marginalized communities who may not have access to avalanche training. These communities may be Indigenous, Black, people of colour (IBPOC) or other communities (e.g. LGBTQIAS2+, neuro-diverse, or other marginalized groups) who may face disproportionate barriers in accessing winter backcountry pursuits in Canada. Avalanche Canada and MEC have partnered to reduce some of these barriers by offering the MEC Avalanche Safety Grant. Thanks to MEC’s generous support, this grant will fund four AST 1 courses with up to eight students from each organization. If you would like to apply or are aware of any organizations that would benefit from this program, you can find the application form here. The application deadline is November 1, 2024.
“Avalanche Canada recognizes that some communities face disproportionate barriers in accessing winter backcountry pursuits in Canada,” explains Gilles Valade, Executive Director of Avalanche Canada. “We are grateful to partner with MEC to inspire, engage, and empower recreationists to enjoy Canada's winter backcountry safely.”
The 2023–24 grant recipients were:
- The Howl Experience (Bow Valley, AB): Providing transformative, barrier-free learning experiences for Indigenous, low-income, and marginalized youth.
- Indigenous Women Outdoors (Pemberton, BC): An all-Indigenous organization dedicated to igniting a spirit of empowerment, resilience, and connection among Indigenous women by providing them with the opportunity to explore and excel in outdoor sport activities.
- Incluskivity (Squamish, BC): Aiming to create an inclusive and psychologically safe space for IBPoC women and gender-diverse people to recreate in the backcountry with their peers.
- K8 Mountaineering Club of Alberta (Calgary, AB): A Filipino-Canadian Mountaineering Club aiming to support Filipino immigrant mountaineers through the healing power of the mountains.
“I really appreciated being able to do the course with just our IWO crew because it definitely made the whole experience much less intimidating. Since it was a group I felt super comfortable with, I had no hesitations about asking any and all questions I had which I think is super valuable for a course like this. It was a super positive experience and I'm super grateful to have had the opportunity to do my AST1 with IWO.”
Backcountry Access also contributed to this initiative by providing two boxes of safety gear, each with eight sets of avalanche transceivers, shovels, and probes for use on these courses. Thanks to Backcountry Access for their generous support.
The MEC Avalanche Safety Grant is an integral part of our ongoing commitment to ensure that our programs and services are welcoming to all of Canada’s diverse population.