‘Isolated’ neighbourhood gets a much-needed lift

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This article was published 25/05/2011 (5479 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Marie Boomer knows some of her clients on Marlene Street in St. Vital face the same problems as inner city residents.

“We serve a community that is in a Manitoba Housing complex. We have a really diverse population that consists of mostly aboriginals and newcomers,” said Boomer, who is the administrative co-ordinator for the Marlene Street Resource Centre.

But since Marlene Street isn’t in the inner city, Boomer said accessing funding to support the centre’s programs has not always been easy.

“We’re very isolated,” she said. “We’ve lost out lots because of core funding, core-area funding. And that’s OK, because (the core) really needed it.”

That means many of the centre’s programs and services lack funding.

“We just sort of fly by the seat of our pants,” she said.

But Boomer said she hopes that is changing, thanks to a new offshoot program of the provincial government’s Neighbourhoods Alive strategy for community-driven revitalization.

The Alpine-Lavallee neighbourhood — which includes Marlene Street — was one of five selected for the Localized Improvement Fund for Tomorrow program.

The LIFT program, which was announced in the 2011 provincial budget, is a four-year commitment that will provide $90,000 annually for community projects in each of the five selected neighbourhoods.
In total, that means $1.8 million in funding over the next four years.

The Alpine-Lavallee area is bordered by Fermor Avenue to the north, St. Anne’s Road to the west, Bishop Grandin Boulevard to the south and the Seine River to the east.

Besides Marlene Street, the area also includes Alpine Place, a high-density neighbourhood with apartment buildings and Manitoba Housing developments.

The four other communities to receive LIFT funding include Elwick in southeast Maples, Weston, Osborne-Mayfair, and South Pembina.

Kerri Irvin-Ross, the minister responsible for Neighbourhoods Alive, said the neighbourhoods were chosen based on three main criteria — poverty levels, education levels, and cultural factors such as minority and aboriginal populations.

Many of the areas include Manitoba Housing developments, she added.

“That’s where those pockets are in these communities,” she said.

Irvin-Ross stressed the program will also have a community-driven focus.

“Community groups and residents will get together, identify what they see as the priorities in their community, and then will access funding to implement those initiatives.”

Irvin-Ross added when the Neighbourhoods Alive strategy was first launched about a decade ago, she was working as a community social worker in St. Vital, including with residents of Marlene Street.

“I kept thinking, boy, we have some of those same demographics in pockets of St. Vital to what they’re trying to address in West Broadway at the time, and the North End,” she recalled.

Irvin-Ross said she wasn’t alone in that line of thinking — many MLAs raised the same issues in their own communities — which motivated the government to develop the LIFT program.

Boomer said she’s excited about what LIFT could mean for the residents of Marlene Street.

“The potential here is enormous for us to do really good work. We already do, so if we had more resources we could do a lot more.”

arielle.godbout@canstarnews.com