The B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres has been tasked with distributing a new provincial fund to increase safety in Indigenous communities.

The B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres has been tasked with distributing a new provincial fund to increase safety in Indigenous communities.

The $5.34-million Path Forward Community Fund was announced Monday, with the promise to combat violence against Indigenous women, girls and LGBTQ2S people.

It will be delivered by Indigenous people for Indigenous people through the association of friendship centre’s 25 B.C. locations. Projects will focus on safety planning and capacity building within rural and urban communities, to ensure self-determined, culturally-safe solutions.

According to 2015 data from the Canadian RCMP, Indigenous women represented 10 per cent of all missing women cases in the country, despite only making up four per cent of the population. In the 14-year period from 2001 to 2015, Statistics Canada reported the homicide rate for Indigenous women was nearly six times higher than that for non-Indigenous women.