YWCA ready to break ground at new centre
The YWCA is preparing to break ground at its new Centre for Women and Families.
The centre is the YWCA’s answer to a variety of pressures in the community over the past several years.
“It’s about keeping families together. It’s about deinstitutionalizing our responses to poverty and violence, and building a concept of what community looks like and how it can really be a factor in supporting marginalized and vulnerable women and families in our community,” said Melissa Coomber-Bendtsen, YWCA CEO.
Each year the YWCA turns away close to three thousand women and children from their shelter system, and this centre aims to cut down those numbers over time.
The centre is going to take a more innovative approach when it comes to serving women experiencing homelessness, domestic violence and sexual assault.
“If we can prevent the crisis then we prevent families from splitting up, we prevent children from going in to the system, we prevent women from having to access shelter services, so if we can do that then the end result would be that hopefully we can start shutting down some of our shelter beds,” she said.
The new facility will be located in the Cathedral area, on a piece of land gifted from the City of Regina.
Partner organizations Regina Mobile Crisis, the Regina Sexual Assault Centre and All Nations Hope Network will also operate out of the facility to help increase accessibility.
It will feature outdoor green space and an all-season sweat lodge and ceremony site.
“I think this is an incredible example of reconciliation and what reconciliation in action looks like,” said Coomber-Bendtsen.
Coomber-Bendtsen said the project is ready and awaiting confirmation for funding from the provincial and federal governments to start building on the plot of land donated by the city.
“This is the time now for us to build a healthy, sustainable and supportive community.”
The federal government is reviewing the application, while the province is working to gather information on its status.
“We’re very hopeful and looking forward to our partners coming to the table so that we can put the shovel in the ground,” said Coomber-Bendtsen.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'I have the will to live': N.B. woman needs double lung transplant
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
Video shows suspect setting Toronto-area barbershop on fire
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
Police officer hit by driver of fleeing vehicle in Toronto
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
The kids from 'Mrs. Doubtfire are all SUPER grown up now, and we're not OK
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Boeing is on the verge of launching astronauts aboard new capsule, the newest entry to space travel
It’s the first flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of NASA pilots who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station.
Suter scores late goal, clinches series for Canucks
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
TD worst-case scenario more likely after drug money laundering allegations: analyst
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
Britney Spears 'home and safe' after paramedics responded to an incident at the Chateau Marmont, source tells CNN
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.