The Municipality of Cartwright-Roblin joined the nominees who were awarded a $10,000 grant to support healthy aging and social inclusion of older Manitobans, through Manitoba Association of Senior Communities (MASC) recently launched Age Friendly Manitoba 2.0. 

Economic Development Officer for Cartwright-Roblin, April Archambault, says Age Friendly Manitoba has a number of initiatives to make communities more friendly for all ages, often with a focus on our senior population.

"They recently had a grant intake for a community collaboration project that would speak to what they do, and our community has been looking at gaps with what we're missing to make our community age friendly, she explains. "Cartwright specifically lost their community newspaper a couple of years ago, and that has left a hole where information wasn't being shared in the same way, and there was a population of people here who weren't feeling connected anymore."

"So, the CDC (Community Development Corporation) and the Service for Seniors and the Foundation, we all put our thoughts together and decided we would try to apply for a grant that would address that," says Archambault.

The local newspaper, The Southern Manitoba Review closed its door at the end of 2021 creating that gap within the community.

Archambault says they'll be using the $10,000 towards building and installing two outdoor bulletin boards in the town of Cartwright, one to be installed at the Cartwright Post Office, and the second at their community campground, Heritage Park.

"This gives people an information source, especially for those who don't get their information through the internet, as well as doing some repair work on our digital sign just to keep that communication happening and making sure everyone knows events and important information through the municipality." 

The municipality of Cartwright-Roblin learned they got the $10,000 funding just this past weekend and were thrilled with the news.

"It's very cool," shares Archambault. "We were hopeful but not expecting that we necessarily get chosen. So, we're very excited to get chosen for that.  It seems like a very basic project but it's going to be a great thing and we're happy to take small steps to make improvements for making our community age friendly."

"We hope the bulletin boards will make a difference, and one of the location sites will be in our campground and so we're hoping that will be helpful for our tourists as well, to share information on what you can do when you're here.  so, there's lots of reasons why it's going to be a good thing!"

Communities on the age friendly pathway were recently eligible to apply for funding through the new Community Collaboration Grant Program.  It encouraged three or more community organizations and their local municipality to deliver a project that impacts two or more age friendly domains.  Jeanette Edwards, MASC President noted that “our organization is excited to see the collaborative impact of community organizations working together, and we are pleased to announce that ten grants of $10,000.00 each are being awarded to support a project in the following communities: 

  • Chalmers Neighborhood Renewal Corp (Winnipeg)
  • City of Brandon - Age Friendly Committee of Council
  • Rural Municipality of Prairie Lakes
  • Municipality of Harrison Park
  • Town of Carberry
  • Town of Powerview Pine Falls
  • Municipality of Emerson-Franklin
  • Norfolk Treherne Development Corporation
  • Municipality of Cartwright-Roblin
  • Municipality of Russell-Binscarth