Recognition for important community initiatives

The Shaw Conference Centre is being awarded a 2008 Human Rights Award for Excellence by Human Rights City Edmonton, a project facilitated by the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights.

”The Shaw was nominated this year primarily for their support of human rights causes and events such as the Everyone for Edmonton event and the Homeless Connect, both of which were hugely supportive of non-profit initiatives, which are often hampered by a lack of resources,” says Mandy Siu, Project Coordinator for the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights. “Considering the Shaw is a world-class facility, this of course also boosted everyone's profile and brought more attention to the issues facing Edmonton.”

Everyone for Edmonton was an unprecedented community development event, held on August 23rd at the Shaw, in which over 200 registered non-profit organizations set up booths in one hall to promote their mission, connect with donors and recruit volunteers. On October 5th, the Shaw hosted the city’s first-ever Homeless Connect event, a massive community movement to provide a one-stop-shop of services specifically for the homeless and those at-risk of becoming homeless. Over 40 agencies provided over 50 services from foot care, immunization, haircuts, counseling and housing workshops to more than 1,500 guests in one day.

Both events were initiated, organized and sponsored by the Shaw Conference Centre as part of its contribution to the Edmonton community in celebration of its 25th Anniversary.

“Over the course of 25 years, 12 to 15 million people have been through our facility,” says Mike Fitzpatrick, Vice President and General Manager, Shaw Conference Centre. “Yet, there are many people in our community who have not had an occasion to attend an event at their convention centre. We wanted to connect with those people and provide them with an opportunity to benefit from this community investment.”

The Shaw Conference Centre will be recognized with the Human Rights Award in the Business category at the 2nd Annual Human Rights Awards on December 10th International Human Rights Day at Campus Saint-Jean. This year’s event also commemorates the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was signed by the United Nations on Dec 10, 1948.

More information about the Human Rights Awards is available at www.humanrightscity.ca or by contacting Mandy Siu at (780) 453-2638 or mandy@jhcentre.org

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