The South West District for Culture, Recreation, & Sports Inc. (SWDCRS) has a few upcoming learning opportunities, grants, and programs to aid in the development of culture, recreation, and sports in district member communities, that look to be full of fun and knowledge.
Grant Writing & Sponsorship Development Workshops
The Grant Writing & Sponsorship Development Workshops are two workshops taking place on separate days. Both events will take place from 4:30 P.M. to 7:30 P.M. and will be done on Zoom due to a lack of interest in these programs. Since these events are now being done online there will be no registration fee, though registration is required for both events.
The Grant Writing Workshop is a workshop that will teach participants about the eight vital tools to write a strong and effective grant application and how to keep all their research organized. This training is extremely valuable for many different types of groups like sports clubs, art guilds, recreation leagues, and charitable organizations. The Grant Writing Workshop will take place on August 23, 2022, with registration closing on August 22, 2022.
The Sponsorship Development Workshop is a workshop that will teach participants the skills needed to develop sponsorship opportunities, strong sponsorship proposals, skills to identify sponsors, and how to build strong and meaningful sponsorship relationships. The Sponsorship Development Workshop will take place on August 30, 2022, with registration closing on August 29, 2022.
The reason you need to be registered to participate in the event is simple. The SWDCRS will have to send you login information, course material, and additional follow-up resources, and they can only send you that information if you register. Additionally, those who register will receive a link to watch the workshop recording.
"We don't have a pre-set limit for our workshop. Though, we do try to keep class sizes around 20 to 25 people so that group discussion is a little easier and it is not too big for everyone attending. It is possible online to have more than that, and we welcome everyone to register and attend," says Christie Saas, the Executive Director of the South West District for Culture, Recreation, & Sports Inc.
Micro Grant
This is a small grant that is being offered by the SWDCRS. This funding program is for culture, recreation, and sports groups that operate in the south west district and is meant to aid these groups in developing their respective culture, recreation, or sports services. This grant is open to groups that are from member communities in the south west district. If it is a group from a small rural town near a member community then they will fall under that membership. Currently, they will be able to provide $500 to 20 projects, but they do understand that not every project will need the full $500, so they may be able to provide funding to a couple more projects.
The application opened on August 9, 2022, and the deadline to apply is on August 29, 2022. For a project to qualify it must be finished by December 5, 2022.
"This grant is a very easy online application. Our community consultants are available to answer questions and to help groups develop their applications. We want it to be as easy as possible and not intimidating. So, we really encourage people to look at the web, look at the application, and do not be intimidating it is really very easy, " says Saas.
Micro-Learning Series Summer Student and Community Museums
The Micro-learning series is a collection of smaller learning opportunities that participants can view on their own schedule. The Summer Student and Community Museum is just the first episode in that series, and it is a recorded interview with summer students from the Avonlea Heritage Museum. These students were extremely successful in increasing the profile of their museum, so they were asked to share that knowledge to help build up other museums. the recording speaks about using social media, special events, surrounding attractions, and engaging with their community to have them support the museum. The SWDCRS will be releasing around three to four more of these short educational videos within the next six months.
To receive the video content, you will have to register any time before September 30. Once you have registered you will then have access to this video on demand.
"There is a lot of good information in this series. starting with the interview with the students from the Avonlea Museum. We have got other great information coming up. What is helpful about this series is that you register, you then have access to the videos, and you can watch them when you are free, on your schedule," says Saas.
The SWDCRS is a non-profit organization that collaborates with communities, clubs, and volunteers to develop culture, recreation, and sports in their district. They work a bit differently than recreational directors; in that, they do not perform workshops. Instead, they would collaborate with recreational directors to create strategies ad tips on how to throw events and workshops. They are one of seven districts in the province of Saskatchewan.
To register for any of these events you can visit their website at https://www.gosouthwest.ca/.
