Mental health hubs to expand in Manitoba

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This article was published 20/02/2025 (254 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A program that offers Manitoba youth a centralized hub to access mental health support and social services is getting federal funding to expand to every health region in the province.

Huddle, which is supported by the United Way, the provincial government and donors, will receive $10 million from the federal Youth Mental Health Fund to expand its operations, the United Way announced Thursday.

Launched in 2022, Huddle currently operates six centres for people aged 12 to 29 in Winnipeg, Brandon and Selkirk.

The funding means Huddle will be able to open two new centres in northern Manitoba and rural southern Manitoba over the next four years, and offer counselling, mental-health support, primary care and other services for youth that may struggle to access it otherwise, executive director Pam Sveinson said.

“Right from the very beginning, youth voices have been central to this, and what the youth have been telling us is that, in the past, they haven’t known where to go to get the help they needed, when they go there, they’re not comfortable, it doesn’t feel culturally safe, it feels really difficult to access,” she said Thursday.

“And what the youth hubs have done is provided a safe space that they’re describing as low-barrier, culturally safe, and it’s a place where they feel comfortable and safe going to seek the services that they’re looking for.”

The funding will also go toward bringing Huddle staff to schools both in and outside of Winnipeg in hopes of guiding students to support systems they can access in their community.

In the past year, nearly 7,000 youth have visited Huddle sites with more than 20,000 total visits. They’ve held more than 3,300 counselling sessions and nearly 3,500 primary care visits.

Opening sites in northern and southern Manitoba means every health region in the province will have a Huddle hub.

Nicole Tornquist, the junior chief of Opaskwayak Cree Nation, said the space will be a bridge for youth in historically underserved areas.

“Northern Manitoba lacks a lot of resources for young people,” she said in a statement.

“I feel Huddle would fix that gap that seems to be missing in a lot of communities for young people. Youth would have somewhere to go for help and, most importantly, they would have a safe space and a sense of belonging.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca