Youth hubs launch citywide

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Three new youth hubs aimed at providing a “one-stop shop” of social services to people aged 12 to 29 launched May 4 in Winnipeg.

The new sites in St. Boniface, north Winnipeg, and West Broadway join the existing NorWest Youth Hub to form Huddle, an initiative of the Province of Manitoba together with United Way Winnipeg and other community partners. A youth hub also opened in Brandon on May 4, and one will be opening in Selkirk, Man., later this year.

“This is really about working differently,” said Pam Sveinson, Huddle’s executive director.

“We talk about it as a systems transformation. It’s about service-providing organizations coming together in a much more integrated way and working out of a hub location.”

Sveinson said each Huddle hub will provide all five core services: mental health and addictions support; primary physical care; peer support; and social support.

Social supports may include “anything from employment support and training support, housing support — whatever youth are looking for, in terms of their overall quality of life and promoting wellness,” Sveinson said.

Huddle comes as a result of the Virgo report, a lengthy look into Manitoba’s mental health and addictions system released in 2018, Sveinson said.

“The understanding as a result of the Virgo report … is that often accessing mental health and addiction services could be a bit confusing or unclear for youth and families. They’re not sure exactly where to go, how to find the support they need,” she said.

“So, the idea is that if we have these community-based sites that are visible and welcoming in terms of how they’re set up, how they look, it will improve opportunities for youth and families to access those kinds of services. Certainly there’s a focus on mental health and addiction services, but it’s really wraparound support.”

One of the benefits of the all-in-one model, Sveinson said, is that people accessing services may not have to explain traumatic stories repeatedly as they seek various supports. This was an issue many people have raised, Sveinson said.

Sveinson said the hubs have engaged with youth and families to ensure services are being delivered in a way that they find accessible, and that going forward, the hubs will “make sure they have a voice in how these sites are developed right from the outset.”

Ka Ni Kanichihk will be operating one of the hubs out of its building at 455 McDermot Ave. The Indigenous-led hub occupies an important role in Winnipeg’s community, youth hub co-ordinator Samantha Brown said.

“Having services through an Indigenous perspective, Indigenous ways of doing and knowing, especially when approaching healthcare, is vital because there is a disparity in Indigenous people accessing healthcare. And there’s the fact that they experience racism when they do access it,” Brown said.

Brown said the focus is on helping youth access culture and tradition, including medicines, Indigenous healing ceremonies, and languages.

The hub will focus on Ojibwe, Dakota, Cree, and Métis services, but will try to expand in the future, Brown said.

For information, go to www.huddlemanitoba.ca