New resource guide aimed at city’s most vulnerable

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This article was published 17/04/2018 (2919 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new resource guide for the city’s most vulnerable citizens is now on the streets.

The Winnipeg Outreach Network launched the guide for youth in need at the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre on King Street Tuesday.

The idea for the pocket-sized book came from doing outreach on the street and discovering there wasn’t a single guide listing all the resources available in the area, said Melissa Stone, outreach facilitator for sexually exploited youth at Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre.

“Youth would ask me, ‘Where can I get this? Where can I get that?'” she said.

The Winnipeg Outreach Network is made up of 18 member organizations that collaborated on the guide, which lists names, locations and contact information of different services and organizations people can access when in need.

The guide is being distributed by front-line agencies and includes locations of shelters, clinics and places to get free clothes or food, among other resources.

Physically, the guide is water-resistant and fits in a pocket. It also has a map that marks where various resources are located in Winnipeg. While the guide is mainly directed towards youth, the resources are useful for people of all ages.

Stone and Scott McNicol, street outreach co-ordinator of Resource Assistance for Youth, Inc., worked together to collect input from those who will use and need the guide most: people living on the street.

“Who better to listen to than them?” McNicol said.

Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth spoke at Tuesday morning’s launch and called the Winnipeg Outreach Network “a tremendous example of the community at it’s best; when it comes together to consolidate all the rich experience that is available out there.”

The police service was trying to provide similar services to the network, but Smyth said that wasn’t the best way since the organizations that make up WON have a better representation within the groups they are serving.

“We are learning from the people who were once exploited themselves and have come out the other side as survivors,” he said.

One of those people is a woman named Roxie Vincent.

Vincent grew up in foster care. She said she was with a good family, but was isolated and lacked a sense of community because of that. Growing up, she didn’t even know what emotional support meant, she said in a speech.

At the age of 16, and then again at 18, Vincent was homeless for three weeks. She told reporters it was by choice because she wasn’t getting the emotional or communal support she needed in her life.

In the lead up to Tuesday’s presentation, Vincent said she thought about back to the time she was homeless and how things could have turned out different.

“I could’ve been one of those missing and murdered indigenous women because I was sleeping under a bridge,” she said.

Vincent, 23, collaborated with youth focus groups about resources to include in the guide. She wished she knew about what resources were available in the city when she was homeless.

“It was really eye-opening. With this tool, lots of youth will now have the chance to take directive in their own life,” Vincent said.

The guide will be kept up to date, Stone said, adding the guide they just printed already needs some updating.

“We were wanting to do it every six months; however, we might have to do it every few months, but that depends on funding,” she said.

According to Stone, WON had enough funding to print 5,000 copies of the resource guide. They have about 700 left.

People can contact info@mamawi.com for the updated resource guide.

nicholas.frew@freepress.mb.ca