Manitoba kicks in $380K for all-hours youth safe space in Winnipeg's West End

An all-hours safe space for at-risk youth in Winnipeg's West End will get provincial funding, the NDP government says.

The Spence Neighbourhood Association has been working on creating a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week safe space for youth in the community for almost two years. 

• Organization hits $25K crowdfunding goal for youth safe space in West End

Executive director Jamil Mahmood said Friday the organization has secured $380,000 in funding from the province that will make their dream a reality.

"We're good to go. It's super exciting," Mahmood said.

The money will be used to help staff two new positions — one in-house elder/grandmother and one youth mentor-in-residence — for three years. The program will give youth a place to stay out of trouble, day and night.

"The really important thing is that we have well-trained people there that are able to give people the love and support that kids need — especially in crisis [or] when they don't have a place to go overnight," Mahmood said.

"All of our programming is [about] getting good people who build relationships and use those relationships to make the lives of our youth better."

The program will expand on the organization's existing drop-in program, which runs Monday to Friday from 3:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Magnus Eliason Recreation Centre (MERC) on Langside Street, which is owned by the city.

Hopefully we're able to change things enough that kids aren't in these situations so they don't need it in three years.- Jamil Mahmood

"I am so proud of all those who worked tirelessly going door to door collecting signatures and talking about the need for a 24/7 safe space for youth," Daniel MacIntyre Coun. Cindy Gilroy said in a statement. "I am fully behind this project and am thrilled that I can advocate for it at city hall."

The funding announcement comes just weeks after the organization's GoFundMe campaign raised $35,000 — exceeding their goal by $10,000. Mahmood said the organization may not have caught the province's attention were it not for the more than 400 people who donated to the campaign.

"As soon as we reached our GoFundMe goal, we were like, 'This has to happen now. You know the community is behind us,'" he said. "It was their support that made the province step up and do this."

Levelling the playing field

While there's a lot of work ahead, Mahmood said, as someone who lives in the area, he's excited youth in the West End are one step closer to getting the help they need.

"I love Winnipeg and I love the West End, but we really don't do enough to level a lot of the injustices that happen in our city," he said, adding the 24/7 safe space will help "level the playing field that's just not level."

While Mahmood said he expects the program will be a success, he hopes after the three-year term there will no longer be a need for all-hours programming in the neighbourhood.

"In our minds this is not a long-term project; this is something we want to get up and running because the need is there now," he said. "Hopefully we're able to change things enough that kids aren't in these situations, so they don't need it in three years. So that's our goal is to not exist after three years, [that] would be great."

The idea for a 24/7 safe space for West End youth gained momentum in fall 2014 after the death of Tina Fontaine, whose body was pulled from the Red River in Winnipeg in August 2014. About 650 people in the community signed a petition pushing for the creation of the space last year.