Programs promoting communication, whether between children and parents, employers and employees, or vulnerable youth and mentors, took home top honours at the 2015 Laurel Awards.
The awards, presented Wednesday at a luncheon at the Westin Edmonton, celebrate the work of non-profit organizations in Edmonton and the surrounding area.
Uncles & Aunts at Large (Edmonton Area) Society was awarded the gold prize for their Strengthening Families Program for At-Risk Youth. The program, introduced in 2014, will be delivered to 175 at-risk youth over five years. It teaches life, family and communication skills to at-risk youth and their parents.
The Gateway Association’s We Belong App that connects employers with workers with intellectual disabilities earned the silver prize.
The bronze award went to Maskwacis Kakeskewina Learning Society for its Maskwacis Life Skills Training program, a violence and substance abuse prevention program that was delivered to 174 students in Maskwacis-area schools over three years.
The staff of Duncan Craig LLP, the law firm that created the Laurel Awards in 1994, also chose a favourite organization: Little Warriors won the Staff Choice Award for its Be Brave Ranch, a treatment centre for children who have been sexually abused.
The gold, silver and bronze winners took home $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000 respectively. The Staff Choice winner received an honorarium of $1,000.
The Laurel Awards were established by Edmonton law firm Duncan Craig LLP in 1994.
