Art is being used in the RM of Springfield as a weapon against mental illness.

The Sunrise Performing Arts Centre of Excellence (SPACE) in Oakbank says they will be using recently announced provincial funding to address a void in their municipality. As Financial Manager Nancy Ziprick Baert explains, two separate grants of $8,000 and $27,316 will be financing outreach projects aimed at obtaining mental wellness through art.

Nancy Ziprick Baert (photo credit: SPACE)“It has come to our attention, very clearly, that there are a lot more resources that need to be available to the residents of our community,” she says.

As with most rural municipalities in Manitoba, Springfield covers a large swath of unoccupied land only occasionally dotted with small LUDs and villages. Ziprick Baert lists this fact as one of the reasons she is so grateful for the provincial support.

“Even though we are just a few minutes outside of Winnipeg, our whole RM is large in size and there are a lot of people further out who might be low-income or have transportation barriers. Having these funds will enable us to deliver programs to communities outside of Oakbank, reaching the fringes of our RM.”

Ziprick Baert says the larger of the two grants will finance a handful of pilot projects, some of which are already underway.

“Right now, we do a rock painting therapy program for some of the students in our schools as a place for them to express their creativity in a way that helps their wellbeing.”

The grant has also made way for a couple of other initiatives will start up in the new year. Those include Tai Chi classes and art therapy sessions for seniors.

Finally, Ziprick Baert says the last bit of their funding will be redirected towards other local organizations such as “Springfield Connections”, to improve their services as they relate to mental health.