Proposed $250-K grant would bolster community centres amid volunteer shortage

A city funding hike could help community centres pay for staff and programming as they struggle to find volunteers.

A proposal calls for the city to give the General Council of Winnipeg Community Centres a new $250,000 programming and wage subsidy grant, starting in 2026, pending city council approval in next year’s budget.

“We are now … struggling to find volunteers that want to invest as much time as they once did. We’re really looking for additional funding so that we can hire support to help each of the community centres do the right programming,” said Lora Meseman, executive director of the community centre council.

In 2018, there were more than 17,000 community centre volunteers in Winnipeg, which “drastically decreased to 5,576” during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the organization’s 2026 to 2028 business plan.

“The numbers recovered slightly by the end of 2024, with community centres reporting 8,210 (volunteers),” the document notes.

Community centres also struggle to keep staff, since they tend to offer minimum wage, it states.

Some of the city’s smallest centres are already forced to close at times due to a lack of volunteers, said Meseman.

“There are centres that … sometimes are not open in the summer months because the volunteers go to the lake,” she said.

Meseman said the grant matches a key element of the council’s business plan and long-term vision and would offer a “starting point” to boost resources at Winnipeg’s 63 community centres.

Those centres are operated by community boards, with 81 total facilities when satellite locations are factored in.

Meseman said the new grant should support a move to shift volunteers toward larger governance decisions, as added staff cover more daily tasks.

While $250,000 won’t address all needs at dozens of community centres, the request acknowledges the city’s tight budget, she said.

“The City of Winnipeg doesn’t have a big bucket of money that they’re going to hand over … we’re trying to be realistic,” said Meseman.

She noted different funding requests could be made in 2028, when the city starts its next four-year budget cycle.

Winnipeg’s mayor said he supports the new grant.

“We have a lot of small community centres that can’t afford to hire programming staff or operational staff to do their work without some sort of subsidy … I think this is a nominal investment that would produce really good results,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham.

The mayor said the money would help the centres continue to serve as critical community hubs.

“I see this as a potentially important investment to strengthen our community centres … (which) are very important to the health of our city,” he said.

Coun. Vivian Santos, chairwoman of community services, also sees a need for the changes.

“The funding is important to ensure that our community centres are supported because … there (are) not a lot of volunteers right now. We’re seeing a decline in that and it’s really hard to do a lot of programming,” said Santos (Point Douglas).

However, she said her final vote on the funding request will depend on how the expense fits among many other budget priorities.

“I want to also respect some of the other financial constraints (the city has),” said Santos.

The proposal also calls for the city to continue providing a base grant of about $1.7 million to community centres next year, along with a one-time grant of $35,000 to obtain legal advice on management agreements with the city. It would also increase a graffiti control grant by $12,000, to reach $32,000 per year, reversing a previous budget cut.

All of the changes would require approval in the city’s 2026 budget process.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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