Habitat for Humanity Northwest Territories in the Community

The Cause

Do you share our vision of a world where everyone has a safe and decent place to live? An investment in Habitat for Humanity Northwest Territories is an investment in healthier communities and happier children.
The Meaning of Home (MOH) contest is a nationwide contest and is a unique and meaningful way to get children involved in creative writing and giving back in their community. Kids in grades 4, 5, and 6 can write an entry between 50 and 300 words about what home means to them in English or French. This meaningful contest challenges students to think creatively about a topic that directly impacts their lives—the meaning of home—and ultimately improve their writing skills. The full outline of the National contest can be found here National Kids Writing Contest - Habitat for Humanity Canada (meaningofhome.ca).
HFHNT’s proposal is to run a contest in conjunction with the National (MOH) contest, following the existing outline to celebrate Northern kids, and their creative writing entries. This is a contest inside of a contest per sea. Many larger affiliates across Canada run consecutive contests to highlight the meaningful work of the kiddos across Canada and our proposal is aimed at celebrating and amplifying the children’s voices of the North! This territory wide contest would feature individual three Grand prize winners for grades 4, 5, and 6 along with two (2) runners up in each grade, lunch parties for the winner and runners up in each class and a prize for the teacher with the highest participation.

Who Will it Benefit?

Growing up in a decent affordable home can have a powerful effect on children. Studies draw a straight line between the quality, location and affordability of housing and a child's ability to thrive. Surveys of families with safe, stable, and affordable housing show fewer health problems, improved school performance, less psychological stress, and are more self-assured parents. Every Habitat home built helps create $175,000 worth of benefits for the local community. Habitat homeowners are happier, healthier, and more financially stable, which can allow them to return to school, learn a new trade, or upgrade their job skills. We are proud to say that 75% of our homeowner's self identify as indigenous and they have shared with us that their children are more confident and are doing better in school since moving into their habitat home. Our families also have a lower high school drop out rate and are more likely to attend post secondary education. We also see improved health behavior's, including being more physically active and reduced smoking rates. By piggy backing on the National Meaning of Home contest, I am certain that our reach in the North will be celebrated far and wide and it will hopefully coincide with our launch of new applications in 2025!