Youth drop-in centre focuses on Indigenous, newcomers

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This article was published 11/08/2022 (865 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new drop-in centre in Central Park is seeking to bridge the gap between Indigenous and newcomer youth who call the downtown Winnipeg area home.

On Aug. 6, Altered Minds Inc. opened the dedicated space at 406 Edmonton St., after receiving a $220,000 grant from Canadian Heritage’s anti-racism fund.

While the centre will be used for a variety of programming, its primary goal is to foster meaningful relationships between Indigenous and newcomer youth through educational workshops and activities.

“Often, newcomers and Indigenous Canadians are living in the same buildings, but they don’t often connect. Even if they’re in the same classrooms at school, often groups are divided,” said Grace Eidse, AMI executive director. “By bringing them together, specifically for these workshops, the goal is to try and pair them up.”

Eidse said the program was modelled after the Indigenous Orientation Toolkit, education newcomer adults receive about Indigenous Peoples in Canada. The demand for this type of programming was high, but it was clear that it needed to be revamped to resonate with youth, Eidse said.

“Primarily, the money will be used to develop and deliver a series of workshops related to Indigenous themes like the colonial experience, history and so on, and we’re going to adapt those themes for youth.”

Leading up to its launch, a handful of inner-city organizations banded together to support the opening of the drop-in centre, which will be open on evenings and weekends to youth ages 14 to 19. Support from organizations such as Immigrant Partnership Winnipeg and Ka Ni Kanichihk helped the project quickly come to fruition, Eidse said.

Jenna Valiquette, a project co-facilitator, brings a background in music and Indigenous studies to the drop-in centre.

Valiquette believes many newcomer and Indigenous youth face the same systemic barriers, adding having these conversations now will allow them to build solidarity.

“I think when we start with a younger group of people, as opposed to people that are maybe set in their ways or have more of a slightly closed mind towards things… we’re able to help them explore and understand what’s going on in the world around them,” Valiquette said.

Before joining the drop-in centre team, project co-ordinator Walid Alkhattab worked with the Manitoba Islamic Association and in after-school programs such as Peaceful Village. He said, often, newcomers and Indigenous peoples have more in common than they might think.

“A lot of (newcomers) are refugees or immigrants where they had to leave their homes and move somewhere new to them. That kind of happened to Indigenous (peoples), as well,” Alkhattab said. “Their culture got taken away. They were still in the same country but everything else was taken away from them.

Still in the early stages, the small but mighty drop-in staff team is seeking to get the word out and ways to brighten the space. Above all, Valiquette hopes the drop-in centre will bring forth a new era in Indigenous-newcomer relations by centring the voices and experiences of youth.

“We’re really in this renaissance of Indigenous justice and it’s important that they’re at the forefront because they’re going to be the elders one day telling stories about this,” Valiquette said.

cierra.bettens@freepress.mb.ca