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This article was published 07/05/2018 (2702 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 

A long-awaited community hub has officially opened on Selkirk Avenue.

 

It was a full house at Merchants Corner (541 Selkirk Ave.) on April 28, with hundreds of community members and leaders there to celebrate the official opening.

The building that was once plagued with violence and drugs, is now the home for the University of Winnipeg’s Urban and Inner-City Studies department, Community Education Development Association’s Pathways to Education, Meet me at the Bell Tower, 30 affordable housing units, and a gathering space with café open to the community.

“Today, we are setting a new standard for this community. Never again, will we have anything less beautiful, less vibrant, less collaborative than this,” Michael Redhead Champagne said at the opening ceremony. “Remember this day.”

After many years in the making, the community partners and stakeholders involved in the redevelopment of the Merchants Corner were ecstatic their work finally came to fruition

“This is a special day for the community, for the students, and the many future students that will study here. This is a remarkable place, and we’ve been doing remarkable things here,” Jim Silver, chair of the U of W’s  department of urban and inner-city studies, said. “I want to thank everybody who has contributed in any way at all, some big, some small. Thanks to everybody and there are hundreds who have been part of this wonderful facility.”

One of the primary goals for the Merchants Corner is to shift the culture around education in the North End, to ensure people graduate high school and go into post-secondary and improve their chances to entering the workforce in higher paying jobs.

“Starting today this is no longer a project; it’s a place. A beautiful, wonderful place, for our youth and community. This is their home away from home,” community elder Kathy Mallett who is a Merchants Corner board member, said.

“Our young people who are in here every day, this is your home when you’re not in your real home in the evening. You come here for comfort, safety, and education, and of course, food,” she said with a laugh.

Kyle Mason, who also sits on the board, said The Merch will help build a stronger community.

“As a North End resident who grew up at times struggling to find secure housing with my single mother and my siblings, we could’ve gone down a different path. But it just so happens that my family and I found a healthy local community and a place that allowed me to go down a different path,” he said.

“We all need community, we all need each other.”