Youville to become home to new youth hub
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This article was published 05/04/2021 (788 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
New youth health and wellness services are coming to the St. Boniface and St. vital areas.
In March, I was excited to announce that our government is contributing $1.92 million toward the creation of five new youth hubs in the province. One of these hubs will be run by Youville in the south end of the city.
These hubs will be a new way of delivering care to youth aged 12 to 29. Youth hubs will bring a variety of services together – from primary and mental health care to family therapy and substance use support – to create an easily accessible location for youth to get care tailored to their needs. The youth hubs will aim to not only provide more services but create smoother transitions between services and service providers.
“It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to transform how we deliver services in a way that increases access and reduces barriers,” says Toni Tilston-Jones, executive director of Youville Clinic.
Tilston-Jones says youth will not only be the focus of services, but a youth advisory council will provide direction on services provided and peer navigators will help clients navigate the system.
“The hub model really is designed to shift power from the systems designing it to the community designing it,” she explains.
“We are hoping to really capture what it is the community needs and how they want those delivered.”
The St. Boniface/St. Vital youth hub location will serve all youth but also have an emphasis on serving Francophone, newcomer, and Indigenous youth. The new location is being finalized and the goal is to have the hub up and running later this year.
The other youth hub locations are in the Centennial/Point Douglas and downtown/West Broadway areas of Winnipeg as well as in the Westman region of Manitoba and in Selkirk. The province has partnered with United Way and other philanthropic partners to fund and facilitate these new expansions.
The hubs will use a model successfully deployed by Winnipeg’s NorWest Co-op Community Health, which was established in 2017. The expansion of the youth hub model and youth-focused services is enacting recommendations from the 2018 VIRGO report, which outlined how Manitoba can improve access and coordination of mental health and addictions services.
This investment is one of the ways we are working to ensure our youth have the support and services. The Manitoba government has invested nearly $50 million in 28 different projects to improve mental health and addictions services throughout the province. This includes programs and services for youth through community groups and in schools, supports provided through the justice system and acute health-care services.
Audrey Gordon
Southdale constituency report
Audrey Gordon is the PC MLA for Southdale.