Indigenous-led non-profit closer to expansion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/12/2021 (1008 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ka Ni Kanichihk is one step closer to realizing their vision to expand their building at 455 McDermot Ave. The organization will receive a major capital grant of $200,000 from the Winnipeg Foundation to help make this happen.

Executive director Dodie Jordaan said the grant will take a bite out of the overall costs of the expansion, but it may help in a different way, as well.

“It’s incredibly important because one of the things we learned as we started fundraising is those who utilize our services and supports know us well. But we realized there’s a large portion of the giving community who doesn’t know Ka Ni Kanichihk and doesn’t know many Indigenous organizations,” she said.

Being put on the charitable map may help attract more donors in the future, but Jordaan said the organization must keep making the effort to let Winnipeg know the value of its services.

“We’ve been doing a lot of work relationship building and getting to know the community in a greater way. Those relationships have to be established before gifts and contributions are made,” Jordaan said.

The Winnipeg Foundation grant brings funding for the estimated $8 million expansion to about halfway, she said. The expanded space will accommodate an expanded day care, a health clinic with an on-site nurse and a commercial kitchen, amongst other upgrades, said Jordaan.

Ka Ni Kanichihk is an Indigenous-owned and Indigenous-led organization. At least 75 per cent of the board is Indigenous at all times, Jordaan said, and that proportion is maintained throughout all staff.

The non-profit aims to provide holistic support to the Indigenous community. All its programs run through the lens of Indigenous culture, Jordaan said.

“Ka Ni Kanichihk really embeds culture as prevention and intervention,” she said.

The organization with the families of missing or murdered Indigenous women and girls; it offers support and a safe house to survivors of sexual assault; it aids children who have been in conflict with the law; it has education and training programs; and it has a day care for children of people in education and training programs.

These are only a handful of the programs offered, all trying to chip away at systemic issues oppressing the Indigenous community.

“Indigenous people are over-represented in statistics when we think about health and justice and child and family services, housing and homelessness,” Jordaan said. “And we have the antidote for those statistics. Indigenous organizations, Indigenous people, we know what we need to do. We just need the space and the opportunity to work with our people. And that’s why this is so important.”

The renovations will expand the space from just over 800 square metres to over 2,000 square metres. Jordaan said with the extra area, the organization expects to support three times the amount of people. It currently works with approximately 1,500 people per year.