From left to right: Joseph Kiunga, Board member, PA Community Foundation, Tim Siebert, Community Reset project, Clint Knutson, Birch Hills Community Church, and Maribel Uligan, RBC Community Manager. (Submitted photo/ Marilyn Petersen)

By Nigel Maxwell

Community projects

Local community project receives $15,000 grant

Feb 27, 2020 | 1:57 PM

Community members in Birch Hills are learning ways to better resolve conflict.

The two day seminar starting Thursday, is part of a much of a much bigger project by the Birch Hills Community Church called ‘Community Restart.’

Pastor Clint Knudson said the goal of the seminar is help restore relationships.

“At its heart, it’s about forgiveness and how to forgive one another, how to forgive family members and things like that,” he explained.

Phase two of the project involves a plan to have a week long seminar in the community, taught by the group Ambassadors of Reconciliation from Montana, who will essentially train people in the community to become mediators. When asked what sparked the idea for the initiative, Knudson said there was not any one specific incident in the community.

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“We have a youth group in town and dealing with some of the youth, you see broken families, you see conflict between different individuals in town that seems so silly and unnecessary,” Knudson said, adding the church’s own members are not immune to conflict.

The project was made possible with support from the Prince Albert and Area Community Foundation, who help coordinate a fund set up by the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). The Future Launch Community Challenge provides up to $15,000 to youth-led projects that address diverse and urgent local priorities. Marilyn Peterson, Executive Director of the local community foundation, said in a statement the initiative is quite exciting.

“Youth are facing pressures on many fronts, and so are our communities. We want to part of creative solutions that enhance equity, sustainability and fairness that help lay the groundwork for a brighter future,” she said.

The week long seminar with the Ambassadors of Reconciliation has been tentatively scheduled for the end of March or beginning of April.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell