(File photo/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Angela Brown

Support for Lighthouse

Online petition started to try to save the Lighthouse; mayor to meet with area leaders

Mar 1, 2021 | 5:34 PM

Local advocates and community leaders are making efforts in an attempt to save the Lighthouse Serving the Battlefords that is slated for closure by April.

The Lighthouse Supported Living announced last week that they can no longer operate an emergency shelter program at the Battlefords location due to substantial funding changes.

North Battleford area resident Jackie Kroczynski, who teaches at North Battleford Comprehensive High School, started an online petition at Change.org to show her support for the Lighthouse. She hopes to collect 2,500 signatures. So far, 1,738 people have signed the petition.

“Number one is to raise awareness,” she said. “I think we need to do something. I don’t think that we can just say that this is okay, because I really don’t think it is.”

Kroczynski is concerned about people in desperate circumstances not having access to an emergency shelter, as well as all the individuals currently employed at the facility who will lose their jobs.

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“Certainly as a community we owe it to all of our citizens to take care of people who need help, and take care of our most vulnerable,” she said. “To cut money to something like that, I don’t understand why because I see that as such a really important part of what we do to help take care of each other.”

Community leaders to meet

North Battleford mayor David Gillan said he plans to meet with local area community leaders in the next couple of weeks to see what can be done to try to maintain the Lighthouse emergency shelter program in the Battlefords.

“It’s obviously a very important service in our community, and we must find alternatives to keep this service,” he said.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @OCoureurDesBois