Downtown partnership bolsters efforts to help vulnerable women By: Scott Billeck Posted: 3:58 PM CDT Thursday, May. 1, 2025 Last Modified: 5:02 PM CDT Thursday, May. 1, 2025 Updates

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A new support team, launched under the Downtown Community Safety Partnership, is set to deliver culturally appropriate support to Indigenous women.

The unit, unveiled at DCSP headquarters at 260 Hargrave St. on Thursday, is backed by $350,000 in provincial funding earmarked to combat violence against Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit, and gender-diverse Manitobans.

The funding will pay for an eight-person staff and the purchase of a vehicle for the unit. Funding is expected to be renewed annually as part of the $20-million Mino’Ayaawag Ikwewag strategy.

The support team will meet an “overwhelming” need, says DCSP executive director Greg Burnett.

Creation of the group was a direct response to community calls for a specialized approach to protecting women in downtown Winnipeg.

“We get calls every day within the community, from the community itself to external partners who really want to engage with this team and really give better and more appropriate care for Indigenous women,” he said.

DCSP provides 24/7 assistance to vulnerable and at-risk individuals, along with prevention and outreach programs focusing on long-term solutions.

For now, the women’s support unit will be on the streets during the daytime, Monday and Friday. Its members will be trained in non-violent and crisis intervention, and advanced first-aid, including the ability to administer Naloxone.

Burnett noted the demand for DCSP’s services is growing. The organization responds to roughly 250 to 300 calls weekly, and logged more than 10,000 calls last year.

He said the increase stems from DCSP’s community-based, preventative approach to safety, which reduces the reliance on emergency services.

“It (has) alleviated some of those demands on emergency services,” Burnett said, pointing at the results of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, which reported in 2020 that nearly half of 911 calls in Winnipeg were non-urgent.

“(This unit) can help with that,” he said.

Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said the unit will be connected to front-line agencies, including Ikwe Widdjiitiwin, an Indigenous crisis centre; the North End Women’s Centre; and the North Point Douglas Women’s Centre.

“It’s a network of social service delivery organizations who are on the front lines of supporting women who are in crisis, or supporting women who are in need,” Fontaine said. “There’s a fundamental connection between the work (the unit) is going to be doing, and is doing, on the streets, and those front-line services.”

C.J. Spence, a member of the unit who has more than two decades of social service experience, said the team understands and has the experience crucial to the job.

“I hope to share my stories with (the women we meet on the street),” she said. “Me being Aboriginal, it’s familiar when I’m talking to another Aboriginal woman about what she is going through, what she is dealing with. Maybe she will have a feeling from me that I’ve been through the same thing.

“A real good rapport is really important.”

Fontaine echoed that comment.

“I can’t stress enough the intrinsic trust there is when one of our women, most marginalized and vulnerable, need support, and now she’s going to be able to look at these amazing Indigenous women and intrinsically trust them… That goes an incredibly long way.”

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca