North End resource centre opens doors on Christmas Day
North End Family Centre's 'community living room' aims to ensure everyone has place to go on Christmas
A gathering place in Winnipeg's North End is choosing to keep its doors open for part of Christmas Day to ensure everyone in the community has somewhere to go.
For more than eight years, Main Street's North End Family Centre has seen diverse groups of people — from teens and single moms to seniors — walk through its doors, says founder and executive director Kyle Mason.
And at Christmas, he says, people can become disheartened by witnessing the excesses of the season and need a place to reconnect with others around them.
That's why he's chosen to keep the centre's doors to its so-called "community living room" open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 25.
"We're doing our best to say, 'We're going to be with you and everything's going to be OK,'" said Mason.
Mason, who calls himself a "North End boy," describes the centre as faith-based, but not pushy about that aspect. It offers a wide range of services for people, from counselling and job-seeking resources to laundry facilities.
"At the end of the day, we're all equal … We all deserve love and respect and so we do what we can where we can to get rid of barriers," Mason said.