West End 24-hour safe space promotes normalcy, belonging

West End

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This article was published 14/05/2025 (381 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As the clock ticks down to 11 p.m., staff at the Spence Neighbourhood Association’s West End 24-hour safe space (WE24), located at 430 Langside St., prepare for another shift, which will last until 7 a.m.

Although WE24 isn’t open yet, a small group of youth have lined up at the door. This is a less-busy night than normal.

During the day, the location is the Magnus Eliason Recreation Centre. It’s all-hands-on-deck, with programs such as Building Belonging — an after-school and summer program for kids aged six to 12 — youth drop-in services with a focus on topics such as organized sports, art, cultural awareness, and promoting a healthy lifestyle, and community connecting nights for families and residents in the West End on the second Tuesday of every month — all offered by the SNA.

Once the business of the day subsides, the centre transitions and becomes WE24, which is open every night of the year.

The overnight safe space began operation in 2016, inspired by the 2014 death of Tina Fontaine, an Indigenous 15-year-old girl who went missing and was subsequently murdered in August of 2014. Tina’s death sparked national change, helping to prompt the national inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which was also launched in the summer of 2016.

WE24 is directed at teenagers and young adults— primarily people aged 13 to 26, although sometimes a little younger — and gives them a place to sleep, fill their stomachs, and settle down in a safe, supervised area, protected from potentially dangerous older adults and Winnipeg winters.

It’s one of three overnight spaces for youth in the city, alongside Ombishkaawak Migiziwak, or Rising Eagles (585 Jarvis Ave.), and Rossbrook House (658 Ross Ave.). According to the SNA’s 2024 annual report, the centre served 5,612 meals to 23,861 participants.

Last year, the association was also able to introduce the Naxalone distribution program, which has allowed staff to hand out Naxalone, a medication which temporarily reverses the effects of opioid overdose, in an effort to keep people safe from toxic drugs.

Youth today are dealing with gang impact and reliance on dangerous substances in a way space manager Summer Prince has never experienced before, she said.

The space promotes normalcy, she said, and is based on harm reduction: “safety, a sense of security, belonging, and community connection.”

“No matter what situation they’re in, we won’t push judgement on them,” Prince said. Rather, paid staff create a home environment, as the space is essentially a home for many of the participants each night — which, that night, was demonstrated by the amount of youth who walked in, grabbed a mat, and made their way to the building’s indoor gymnasium.

It was also demonstrated by the care in which staff presented youth who used the service: asking about school, safely disposing of substances forgotten on tables and desks, and providing immediate medical care to an individual who walked in with a bloody hand.

“It comes from the heart,” Prince said, thankful for the fact that SNA is able to pay staff who come out every night to help out.

The courtyard entrance to the building is protected by staff, who sign-in each person as they enter. This is so that individuals who have caused incidents in the past can be identified, and to keep people on the inside within the proper age demographic.

Youth aging out of the window can become a source of grief, Prince said, but it’s done to ensure the safety of the younger kids.

“It means a lot to me,” Prince said, as someone who shares similar life experience with the people accessing the service. “(To be) someone I needed when I was their age … a positive role model, and to provide that stability, it means a lot.”

For more information or to donate to the SNA, which is not-for-profit, visit spenceneighbourhood.org