Knocking down education’s ivory tower

Shelter U has found a permanent home in inner-city Winnipeg.

Following a pilot that produced 50 certificates and inspired multiple recipients to pursue further studies, Booth University College will continue an alternative program that makes higher education more accessible in Manitoba.

“It is the best of what education can be,” said Rev. Rob Fringer, president of the Christian post-secondary institute.

In January 2025, Booth’s Aaron Klassen launched the first of a series of humanities courses — a project he dubbed Shelter U — out of the Salvation Army’s Winnipeg Centre of Hope.

Klassen wanted to include post-secondary education as part of the site’s typical wraparound services, ranging from referrals for addiction support to help setting up a bank account.

Emergency shelter residents have been invited to participate in four courses, free of charge, alongside Booth students.

The electives, each spanning 12 weeks, included music sociology; visual thinking; qualitative research methods; and most recently, creative writing. They were all modelled after traditional university courses, although they didn’t include any more than 21 students at a time.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for people who are in transition, like myself,” Lisa Trudeau said after celebrating the completion of a creative writing course offered at the shelter in Point Douglas.

Trudeau, 55, has been in limbo since quitting a job with built-in accommodation. Losing her unit over the winter reinforced what the veteran building manager already knew — “this market is terrible” — about affordable housing options in her hometown.

Shelter U, her first experience with post-secondary, was a welcome distraction that pushed her to be creative and “keep my mind sharp,” Trudeau said, adding that writing poems was her highlight.

Students read their work aloud when they gathered in a circle, the usual set-up at Shelter U, for an emotional farewell on Thursday.

“I think I’m going to be a writer from now on,” said Edith Aibangbee, a full-time student in Booth’s social work program.

Princess Nakpil said she didn’t expect to meet new friends or process the hardships that led her to seek refuge through the Salvation Army when she enrolled in the course.

“My first aim was just to kill time… I got to express what’s inside me,” she said after sharing a poem about poverty and other challenges she’s faced as a newcomer from the Philippines.

Afterwards, each of them received a certificate of completion and bouquet of carnations.

The director of Shelter U, Klassen said he was “overwhelmed” by how engaged the students have been in the intimate classes.

He credited the mixed population to the program’s success, citing the fact the model facilitates “a dignified learning experience” where everyone is made to feel like the official post-secondary student they are.

Half of the students in the latest cohort were living in transitional housing units. The other half are part- or full-time students who typically study out of Booth’s main campus.

“I’ve been really glad to see that it is possible to bridge the ivory tower and community,” Klassen said, noting there’s been a significant range in student ages, from young adults to seniors.

He said it’s been equally exciting to see shelter clients pursue more post-secondary and express how the self-reflection they’ve done throughout the course has made them think differently about their lives and relationships.

One of the first registrants in Shelter U, a woman who was living in a safe house last winter, is now a full-time student who has resumed her pursuit of a bachelor’s degree, which she abandoned when she fell on hard times a decade ago.

The Shelter U team is in talks with a handful of community agencies that are interested in hosting classes.

Booth is organizing a harvest dinner fundraiser in the fall to support an expansion that is anticipated to cost about $100,000 per year to cover field trips, instructor fees and other items.

The initial rollout was paid for by $15,000 in private donations and a roughly $60,000 grant from the Winnipeg Foundation.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca