Moms, Boobs, and Babies wins national volunteer award

Moms, Boobs, and Babies – a Yellowknife-based mother’s support group – has received national recognition for its work.

The volunteer-run organization won a 2019 Canada’s Volunteer Award in the social innovator category, beating other nominees in the ‘British Columbia and the North’ jurisdiction for the federal award.

The organizations co-chair, Toni Anderson, said winning the award is a “big honour.”

“We have tons of amazing volunteers, and we’ve been 100 percent volunteer-based since the organization began,” she said.

“It means a lot just to show how the hard work that has been done for so many years has really been recognized. And also, we believe the work that we’re doing is really, really important to support the entire Northwest Territories in their early days of parenting.”

The Government of Canada said it chose 21 award winners from a total of 300 nominations.

Moms, Boob, and Babies, formerly known as the Yellowknife Breastfeeding Support Group, has been operating since 1999.

Anderson said since Covid-19 began, they haven’t been able to host in-person meetups, but they will be launching peer support meetings on Zoom for NWT residents in the coming weeks.

She also encouraged parents looking for resources or support to call their toll-free number at 1-844-332-6627 or join their private Facebook group.