The Aviva Community Fund online voting extravaganza is underway for the third year.
Participants of the Comox Valley Girls Group, sponsored by Comox Valley Transition Society, are asking for your support. The second round of voting began Oct. 24 and runs until Nov. 9.
The projects with the highest number of votes go on to the semi-finals.
To vote, go to the Aviva website at www.avivacommunityfund.org and register. You can also access the Aviva Community Fund page on Facebook and vote there.
You have 15 votes and it’s important to vote each day. Aviva has made it easy to send links to your contacts via e-mail and Facebook, and offers many suggestions for promotion through social media.
The name of the project is Girls Supporting Girls for Healthy Living and the project number is 11262. Over the past 13 years, literally hundreds of girls have been positively impacted by their experiences in Girls Group.
The excerpted project description follows:
"We live in the vibrant, scenically exquisite, arts and recreation rich community of the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. There are many positives here, but as in many communities, we have our challenges. Our resource-based economy is dwindling; with the economic challenges come social problems such as poverty, homelessness, and increased stress on families.
"With these challenges, we encounter a high rate of relationship violence, substance misuse, and potential of sexual exploitation. We need to do everything we can to equip our youth, particularly our girls, with the skills to mitigate against these challenges.
We are passionate about the potential of girls in our community, and we hope you will be also!
"Our project entails expanding a popular Girls Group program, to reach more girls locally and beyond. We believe that by helping to empower girls, the entire community benefits. Using a fun, interactive format we will teach valuable skills for healthy living, such as communication and assertiveness, self-care, and leadership."
"We expect many positive outcomes from this project, including improved self-efficacy, enhanced assertiveness and communication skills, greater understanding and awareness issues affecting girls and women, improved mental health and knowledge of self-care, healthier relationships, and better understanding of factors that contribute to disordered eating and misuse of substances. We believe when we improve the lives and health of our girls, there is a positive spillover to the larger community."
— Comox Valley Girls Group