Sscope Inc. is a non-prof­it, reg­is­tered char­i­ty that has been pro­vid­ing employ­ment to the home­less and those liv­ing with a men­tal health ill­ness through our envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly social enter­prise ven­tures since 1991. Safe hous­ing cou­pled with a peer-led sup­port­ive envi­ron­ment helps to empow­er the indi­vid­ual and may aug­ment a per­son­’s jour­ney of recov­ery, pro­vid­ing them with a fresh start and long term plan of action. Sscope​’s unique struc­ture also enables the orga­ni­za­tion to rely almost com­plete­ly on income from their ser­vices, enabling a more effi­cient and less waste­ful finan­cial model.

For over 25 years, RaY has empow­ered dis­con­nect­ed youth through sup­ports, train­ing, and com­pas­sion to encour­age them to make the best pos­si­ble choic­es for their lives. RaY is a nation­al­ly rec­og­nized and award-win­ning non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion locat­ed in Win­nipeg, MB. RaY sup­ports youth ages 0 – 29 with inte­grat­ed pro­grams and ser­vices in a non­judg­men­tal and inclu­sive space.

RaY strives to pro­vide youth with what they need, on their terms, to bet­ter their lives. Our goal is that all youth will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to live healthy and secure lives; they will be giv­en the chance to devel­op a belief in them­selves through tools, infor­ma­tion, and pro­grams that build per­son­al capac­i­ty in order to be self-suf­fi­cient. They will no longer require RaY​’s ser­vices.

Over the years, RaY devel­oped new and inno­v­a­tive pro­gram­ming based on needs iden­ti­fied by youth. Sev­er­al new hous­ing pro­grams, an employ­ment and train­ing pro­gram, social enter­pris­es, and an Indige­nous-led cul­tur­al pro­gram were all devel­oped to respond to emerg­ing needs of youth. To learn more about our inte­grat­ed pro­gram deliv­ery mod­el, click here.

Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of community members formed the Winnipeg MAS, which came together with the aim of helping those in need that were struggling amidst the chaos, based on the time honoured principles of mutual aid. Mutual aid projects are a form of political participation in which people take responsibility for caring for one another and changing political conditions. The group has grown rapidly and now counts more than 11, 000 members.

Over the last 20 months, the Winnipeg MAS has run a number of successful programs, including the Serve the People Initiative, a program started to help get food to homes experiencing food insecurity or to assist people who struggled to get themselves to other programs providing food because of transportation barriers. Over the summer, they also ran a massive donation effort to provide air conditioners and fans to those trying to stay cool!

If you’re looking for food assistance or able to offer something you no longer need to someone else consider posting in the MAS Winnipeg Facebook Group.

The name Ma Mawi Wi Chi Ita­ta trans­lates from Ojib­way into the phrase ​“we all work togeth­er to help one another”.

The Ma Mawi Wi Chi Ita­ta Cen­tre, Inc. (Ma Mawi) was born in the fall of 1984 by com­mit­ted com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers who sought an Indige­nous solu­tion to sup­port­ing and rebuild­ing fam­i­lies. Since that time, Ma Mawi has worked to sup­port fam­i­lies to bet­ter care for chil­dren by cre­at­ing mean­ing­ful oppor­tu­ni­ties for com­mu­ni­ty and fam­i­ly involve­ment. Ma Mawi believes that strength­en­ing fam­i­lies is a wor­thy invest­ment in the future.

Today Ma Mawi offers more than 50 pro­grams, 11 sites, and 200+ staff and volunteers.

tak­en from the Sacred Fire — Bring Our Chil­dren Home face­book page:

Migizi­wazi­son are claim­ing the leg­isla­tive grounds on the east side fac­ing Kennedy, and host­ing a sacred fire for our lost Chil­dren. The Sacred Fire will remain lit until all res­i­den­tial school grounds are searched and our chil­dren are found. The news release about the 751 unmarked graves in Cowessess First Nation sent a new waves of trig­gers and grief in our com­mu­ni­ties. Our pur­pose with this fire is to cre­ate and assert an heal­ing space for our elders, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ty to come togeth­er, sup­port each oth­er , share teach­ing and engage in cer­e­monies, and get involved in main­tain­ing and grow­ing our heal­ing space. Cul­tur­al Pro­to­col are to be fol­lowed please be mind­ful and if you are unsure ask an elders or an orga­niz­ers. We wel­come every­one to come out to share your sto­ries, songs, drums, tra­di­tion­al regalia and to come togeth­er in uni­ty and embrace our cul­tures, lan­guages and cer­e­monies. Uplift Anishi­naabe Aki in our prac­tices and stay ground­ed in the asser­tion of the sev­en sacred teach­ing of Love, humil­i­ty, Truth, Respect, Hon­esty, Courage and Wisdom.

Chii Meg­wetch, Kinanaskomitinawaw

SEED Win­nipeg was formed in the late 1980s as a result of a major study into the eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment needs of Winnipeg’s inner city. After a num­ber of years of search­ing for resources, SEED Win­nipeg opened its doors in Jan­u­ary 1993 with two staff on Ellice Avenue in the West End.

SEED even­tu­al­ly grew into two offices with twen­ty staff, one on Logan Avenue in the Exchange Dis­trict, and one on Selkirk Avenue in the North End.

In April 2006, SEED rejoined its forces into our cur­rent offices at 80 Salter Street in the North End. SEED is the proud own­er of this beau­ti­ful­ly ren­o­vat­ed build­ing which will enable SEED to con­tin­ue to grow and devel­op both its staff and its programs.

SEED has a sol­id, diverse fund­ing base that enables long-range plan­ning and offers con­ti­nu­ity in pro­gram deliv­ery. The abil­i­ty to oper­ate pro­grams over an extend­ed time frame also makes it pos­si­ble to assess pro­gram impacts over longer peri­ods of time.

SEED envi­sions a world where oppor­tu­ni­ties exist for all peo­ple and com­mu­ni­ties to real­ize their hopes and it’s mis­sion is to build strong com­mu­ni­ties and increase oppor­tu­ni­ties for peo­ple through finan­cial empow­er­ment pro­grams and ser­vices through their five pil­lars of finan­cial empowerment:

Finan­cial infor­ma­tion, edu­ca­tion & counselling

Help access­ing income-boost­ing ben­e­fits & tax credits

Safe & afford­able finan­cial prod­ucts & services

Access to sav­ings & asset build­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties includ­ing busi­ness ownership

Con­sumer aware­ness & protection

Rain­bow Resource Cen­tre began as a stu­dent group at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­i­to­ba in the ear­ly 1970s. First known as the Cam­pus Gay Club, the name was changed in 1973 to Gays for Equal­i­ty.

In 1988, the group changed again and became Win­nipeg Gay/​Lesbian Resource Cen­tre, estab­lish­ing itself as an inde­pen­dent orga­ni­za­tion in a new loca­tion at Con­fu­sion Cor­ner. The Resource Cen­tre was incor­po­rat­ed as a non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion and applied for char­i­ta­ble tax sta­tus under the legal name of Man­i­to­ba Insti­tute on Soci­ety and Sex­u­al­i­ty.

The Cen­tre evolved once more in 1999, chang­ing its name to Rain­bow Resource Cen­tre. The rea­son for this change was due to a real­iza­tion and response to be more inclu­sive of all mem­bers of the 2SLGBTQ+ com­mu­ni­ties, and thus the Centre’s mis­sion expand­ed to serve Manitoba’s gay, les­bian, bisex­u­al, trans­gen­der, and two-spir­it communities.

Rain­bow Resource Cen­tre offers sup­port to the 2SLGBTQ+ com­mu­ni­ty in the form of coun­selling, edu­ca­tion, and pro­gram­ming for indi­vid­u­als rang­ing from chil­dren through to 55±. It also sup­ports fam­i­lies, friends, and employ­ers of 2SLGBTQ+ individuals.

Rain­bow Resource Cen­tre’s Edu­ca­tion Pro­gram pro­vides 2SLGBTQ+ and ally edu­ca­tion, aware­ness, and out­reach that assists health­care providers, edu­ca­tors, stu­dents, social ser­vice, and com­mer­cial ser­vice providers.

The Youth Pro­gram offers 2SLGBTQ+ youth a safe, fun place to learn new skills, cre­ate projects, and cel­e­brate iden­ti­ties. Rain­bow Resource Cen­tre also has a vol­un­teer pro­gram, com­mu­ni­ty library, and coor­di­nates the com­mu­ni­ty-led groups and com­mit­tees that meet at Rain­bow Resource Centre.

Rain­bow Resource Cen­tre is locat­ed on Treaty One Territory.

An edu­ca­tor and com­mu­ni­ty activist, Mitch Bour­bon­niere has long been inspired to help oth­ers find their voic­es. A found­ing mem­ber of the orig­i­nal Bear Clan Patrol, he also vol­un­teers with Ogi­ji­ita Pimatswin Kina­matwin (OPK), the Mama Bear Clan, Drag the Red, Ted­dy Bears Pic­nic, CommUnity204, Neemu-Egwah Inc., and many oth­er com­mu­ni­ty-based endeavours.

Mitch has a Mas­ter’s degree in Social work and teach­es at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Win­nipeg and Urban Cir­cle Train­ing , while being employed by Mount Carmel Clin­ic, the Down­town Com­mu­ni­ty Part­ner­ship (DCSP), and Fox Lake first nation

He has devot­ed much of his career and per­son­al time to men­tor­ing, coun­selling and sup­port­ing at-risk youth to help them devel­op self-esteem, con­fi­dence, empa­thy and social skills. By empha­siz­ing the val­ue of good cit­i­zen­ship, vol­un­teerism and pos­i­tive activism, he helps young peo­ple make pos­i­tive changes in their lives.

He helped estab­lish a men’s heal­ing group out of the North Point Dou­glas Women’s Cen­tre. He also works exten­sive­ly with Winnipeg‘s most vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple affect­ed by home­less­ness, post-trau­mat­ic stress, addic­tion, men­tal health issues, domes­tic vio­lence, gang involve­ment and sex­u­al exploita­tion through the OPK and Action Ther­a­py pro­grams and the Man­i­to­ba Youth Jus­tice sys­tem. He vis­its insti­tu­tions and sup­ports peo­ple as they tran­si­tion from prison and gang life.

Mitch devel­oped a pro­gram called Lat­er­al Empa­thy that involves groups of young vol­un­teers col­lect­ing and deliv­er­ing dona­tions of food, cloth­ing, fur­ni­ture and house­hold goods to those in need. This group also vol­un­teers at Indige­nous cer­e­monies across south­ern Man­i­to­ba, dur­ing Sun­dance sea­son. He is a pipe car­ri­er and a 25-year Sun­dancer. He has kept the fire for the Grand­moth­ers Coun­cil, Sis­ters in Spir­it, and many nation­al and cer­e­mo­ni­al events.

Mitch pro­vides sup­port and Elder Ser­vices to Urban Cir­cle Train­ing, Man­i­to­ba Métis Fed­er­a­tion, CEDA Path­ways, North Point Dou­glas Wom­en’s Cen­tre, Ross­brook House, Sev­en Oaks School Divi­sion, the Shame­less Cir­cle, Eliz­a­beth Fry Soci­ety, the Men’s Heal­ing Togeth­er group and many oth­er organizations.

Mitch received the Cana­di­an Humane Association’s Bronze Medal for Brav­ery for jump­ing into a Win­nipeg riv­er to save a young woman’s life in Decem­ber 2016. He has also received two Gov­er­nor Gen­er­al of Cana­da Awards , the Order of Man­i­to­ba as well as many oth­er dis­tinc­tive honours .

The Spence Neigh­bour­hood Asso­ci­a­tion (SNA) works with the peo­ple of Spence to revi­tal­ize and renew their com­mu­ni­ty in the areas of Holis­tic Hous­ing, Com­mu­ni­ty Con­nect­ing, Com­mu­ni­ty Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment, Envi­ron­ment and Open Spaces, and Youth & Families.Spence Neigh­bour­hood is locat­ed between Portage Avenue and Notre Dame Avenue and Bal­moral Street and Agnes Street.

Spence Neigh­bour­hood Asso­ci­a­tion was incor­po­rat­ed in 1997 as a non-prof­it hous­ing group formed by five vol­un­teers who want­ed to work togeth­er to improve the liv­ing con­di­tions of the area. Those vol­un­teers orig­i­nal­ly worked togeth­er to clean up one back lane, and then decid­ed to ren­o­vate a house for a young family.

Next, they began to expand their activ­i­ties and found fund­ing through the Win­nipeg Devel­op­ment Agree­ment for the Light Up Our Neigh­bour­hood pro­gram, which pro­vid­ed dusk-to-dawn secu­ri­ty light­ing on hous­es in the area to improve safe­ty. The Light­ing project allowed vol­un­teers to meet hun­dreds of res­i­dents in the area who received lights. This net­work allowed more ideas for projects to grow, more vol­un­teers to help, and more ener­gy to tack­le fur­ther issues.

The orga­ni­za­tion con­tin­ued to grow and take on more projects, and even­tu­al­ly was able to hire staff. In Jan­u­ary 2000, the orga­ni­za­tion moved to Mag­nus Elia­son Recre­ation Cen­tre at 430 Lang­side Street, and activ­i­ties con­tin­ued to grow in the new com­mu­ni­ty space. With this growth the orga­ni­za­tion made the shift to a rep­re­sen­ta­tive com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment group and devel­oped a new con­sti­tu­tion and elect­ed a board from the neighbourhood.

Nine Cir­cles is a non-prof­it that pro­motes sex­u­al and per­son­al health through pri­ma­ry care, social sup­port and HIV/STI pre­ven­tion, test­ing & treat­ment. Nine Cir­cles sup­ports HIV & STI pre­ven­tion through test­ing, edu­ca­tion and treat­ment, pro­vides coor­di­nat­ed med­ical and social sup­ports for those liv­ing with HIV and pro­mote sex­u­al and per­son­al health includ­ing a harm reduc­tion model.

Nine Cir­cle Com­mu­ni­ty Health Cen­tre is an amal­ga­ma­tion of four AIDS Ser­vice Orga­ni­za­tions (ASOs), which emerged in the late 1980s to ear­ly 1990s. Our found­ing agen­cies were:

Vil­lage Clin­ic (1984 – 2003), which emerged as a gay men’s health cen­tre and was at the fore­front of the com­mu­ni­ty-based response to HIV test­ing, pri­ma­ry care and treat­ment. As HIV evolved in Man­i­to­ba, new agen­cies emerged to con­tribute to the response.

Kali Shi­va AIDS Ser­vices (1987-present), which pri­or­i­tized vol­un­teer in-home­/­com­mu­ni­ty sup­ports, peer involve­ment and empow­er­ment. Kali Shi­va would also emerge as an ear­ly leader in the advance­ment of harm reduc­tion in Manitoba.

AIDS Shel­ter Coali­tion of Man­i­to­ba (1991- 2004), which empha­sized advo­ca­cy and sup­port relat­ed to the social deter­mi­nants of health: hous­ing, income secu­ri­ty and social jus­tice. ASCM suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed Artemis Hous­ing Co-oper­a­tive, a res­i­dent-man­aged hous­ing co-oper­a­tive for indi­vid­u­als liv­ing with HIV.

Man­i­to­ba Abo­rig­i­nal AIDS Task Force (1993−2001), which led the response to HIV’s impact on Abo­rig­i­nal Peo­ples of Man­i­to­ba includ­ing the intro­duc­tion of indige­nous teach­ings into pre­ven­tion and care mod­els, cul­tur­al safe­ty and social jus­tice. MAATF’s Four Door­ways Project was a ground­break­ing edu­ca­tion­al tool that con­tin­ues to influ­ence HIV edu­ca­tion to this day.

Between 1998 and 2000, the found­ing agen­cies worked togeth­er to define the struc­ture, ser­vices and process­es, result­ing in the incor­po­ra­tion of Nine Cir­cles Com­mu­ni­ty Health Cen­tre on Sep­tem­ber 26, 2001.

Ndi­nawe­maa­ganag Endaawaad Inc. (Ndi­nawe) is a not-for-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to help­ing at-risk youth in Winnipeg.

Since 1993, their inte­grat­ed ser­vices have been con­nect­ing vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren and youth aged 11 – 17 with the shel­ter, cul­ture, recre­ation, edu­ca­tion, out­reach and sup­port they need for safe and healthy lives.

Open every day of the year, Ndi­nawe is an imme­di­ate and reli­able place of safe­ty, con­nec­tion and sup­port for youth dur­ing times of high risk when oth­er resources are unavail­able to them.

All of their ini­tia­tives rec­og­nize that youth are most vul­ner­a­ble when they have no safe place to turn for help.

Their pro­grams tar­get harm reduc­tion, cri­sis inter­ven­tion, edu­ca­tion and sta­bi­liza­tion for young peo­ple at risk of, or expe­ri­enc­ing, home­less­ness, sex­u­al exploita­tion, fam­i­ly con­flict, place­ment break­down, and men­tal health crises.

We also work to build a sense of con­nec­tion and belong­ing for youth at risk, to strength­en the youth voice with­in the com­mu­ni­ty and reduce the social iso­la­tion they experience.

Their strong his­to­ry of pro­vid­ing inno­v­a­tive and cul­tur­al­ly informed pro­grams to under-served com­mu­ni­ties is part of a pos­i­tive path towards a bet­ter future for the city’s Indige­nous and at-risk youth.

Syn­onym Art Con­sul­ta­tion is a cura­to­r­i­al col­lec­tive and small arts busi­ness based in Win­nipeg, Man­i­to­ba on the stolen, ances­tral, and tra­di­tion­al lands of the Anishi­naabeg, Ininiw (Cree), Anish-iniw (Oji-Cree), Dako­ta, and Dene Peo­ples, the home­land of the Métis Nation and that we are sus­tained by water sourced from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.

Through unique, inclu­sive and com­mu­ni­ty-mind­ed events, as well as our mur­al and cul­ture fes­ti­val – Wall-to-Wall, Syn­onym strives to cul­ti­vate a grass­roots con­tem­po­rary street-art move­ment in our city and to par­tic­i­pate in hyper­local and inter­na­tion­al dia­logues around impor­tant issues, such as social respon­si­bil­i­ty, and inno­v­a­tive eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, root­ed in the arts.

Syn­onym Art Con­sul­ta­tions and its projects, pro­grams, and events are com­mit­ted to cura­tion that uplifts artists, men­tors, musi­cians, and per­form­ers belong­ing to under-sup­port­ed com­mu­ni­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly those who iden­ti­fy as Black, Indige­nous, Afro-Indige­nous, Peo­ple of Colour, 2SLGBTQIA+, artists with dis­abil­i­ties, and any and all peo­ple who fall with­in these intersections.

Syn­onym Art Con­sul­ta­tion believes that pub­lic art is best real­ized by cen­ter­ing and reflect­ing the diverse needs and dreams of the com­mu­ni­ty. Syn­onym com­mits to mean­ing­ful col­lab­o­ra­tion that rec­og­nizes com­mu­ni­ty assets and sys­temic bar­ri­ers, is open, inclu­sive, acces­si­ble, and sus­tain­able when under­tak­ing pub­lic art initiatives.

Syn­onym also rec­og­nizes that the devel­op­ment of pub­lic art must fos­ter the cre­ative devel­op­ment, agency, and well-being of artists.

Syn­onym com­mits to fos­ter­ing artists in cre­ative expres­sion that reflects the needs of the com­mu­ni­ty and main­tains our organization’s zero-tol­er­ance pol­i­cy for racism, ageism, sex­ism, homo­pho­bia, queer­pho­bia, trans­pho­bia, trans­misog­y­ny, whore­pho­bia, ableism, clas­sism, sizeism, sex-neg­a­tiv­i­ty, cul­tur­al appro­pri­a­tion or any oth­er con­duct that may per­pet­u­ate oppression.

Rege­n­e­sis Cen­tre For Recovery’s mis­sion is to acknowl­edge the role of oppres­sion based on iden­ti­ty and its effect on addic­tion and men­tal health. By increas­ing acces­si­bil­i­ty of trau­ma-informed care through evi­dence-based prac­tice, they aim to cater their pro­gram to those who have his­tor­i­cal­ly been under­served in these areas of health­care. RCR’s man­date is to cul­ti­vate a life-long rela­tion­ship of pos­i­tive sup­port and com­mu­ni­ty involve­ment with each of their clients.

Inspired by the Greek word, rege­n­e­sis, mean­ing renew­al or rebirth, they strive to stay true to our name, pro­vid­ing clients at RCR the fresh start that they deserve. Trau­ma-informed care, com­pas­sion, and a sup­port­ive com­mu­ni­ty are at the heart of our work, while evi­dence-based prac­tice strong­ly influ­ences our ther­a­peu­tic values.

Rege­n­e­sis Cen­tre For Recov­ery pri­or­i­tizes the inclu­sion of tra­di­tion­al­ly mar­gin­al­ized groups such as women and gen­der non-con­form­ing peo­ple with intake pri­or­i­ty giv­en to those iden­ti­fy­ing as Indige­nous peo­ples and/​or mem­bers of the 2SLGBTTQ+ com­mu­ni­ty. They serve as an exten­sion to exist­ing addic­tions care by pro­vid­ing a more grad­ual tran­si­tion between tra­di­tion­al pri­ma­ry treat­ment and inde­pen­dent com­mu­ni­ty living.

This week we have a very special guest, NDP MLA representing Union Station - the amazing Uzoma Asagwara!

Sun­shine House is a drop-in cen­tre locat­ed at the inter­sec­tion of Logan and Sher­brook which large­ly serves street-involved and home­less peo­ple, many of whom have addic­tions and are affect­ed by HIV and HCV. Sun­shine House offers basic sup­port ser­vices which include meals, laun­dry facil­i­ties, shower facil­i­ties, cloth­ing depot, com­put­er access, access to harm reduc­tion mate­ri­als, and com­mu­ni­ty and resource infor­ma­tion. It is one of the only places in Win­nipeg that will allow sol­vent users, which is an extreme­ly mar­gin­al­ized population.

Chef Ben Kramer has helped to estab­lish Win­nipeg as one of the most vibrant food scenes in North Amer­i­ca. He was one of the first to cham­pi­on the use of local, sus­tain­able ingre­di­ents and Ocean Wise cer­ti­fied fish at the dynam­ic Dan­de­lion Eatery. As the Exec­u­tive Chef of Diver­si­ty Food Ser­vices, Chef Kramer cham­pi­oned a social enter­prise approach and intro­duced a sus­tain­able menu to the cam­pus com­mu­ni­ty based on the belief that every­thing should be made from scratch using local ingredients.

Before the Coro­n­avirus out­break, one in eight Cana­di­ans strug­gled to put healthy nutri­tious food on the table. Through­out the pan­dem­ic, as lay­offs increased, food inse­cu­ri­ty became an even big­ger nation­al cri­sis. Through Made With Love, Kramer and his team have devel­oped a high-qual­i­ty, nutri­tious take-home meal menu that will be pre­pared using the high­est food safe­ty stan­dards. These meals will be dis­trib­uted through sev­er­al Win­nipeg orga­ni­za­tions that are on the front-line in try­ing to help com­mu­ni­ties dur­ing the COVID-19 and ever deep­en­ing food inse­cu­ri­ty crisis.

To date, more than 35, 000 meals have been deliv­ered to Win­nipeg­gers in need dur­ing the pandemic.

Jus­tice For Black Lives Win­nipeg is a small group of com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­ers who believes in and advo­cates for the erad­i­ca­tion of the indus­tri­al prison com­plex as well as the mil­i­tary-indus­tri­al prison com­plex and all actors of those sys­tems. They are choos­ing to start with defund­ing, dis­man­tling, and abol­ish­ing the Win­nipeg Police Ser­vice. They do not sup­port sys­tems which police, pun­ish, bru­tal­ize and mur­der BIPOC on a reg­u­lar basis; there is no way to find jus­tice with­in such institutions.

Crime is sim­ply an out­cry for unmet needs. Needs must be met in the com­mu­ni­ty (food, hous­ing, trans­porta­tion, health­care, men­tal health sup­port, harm reduc­tion ser­vices, spir­i­tu­al sup­ports, addic­tions sup­ports, free exten­sive com­mu­ni­ty activ­i­ties, etc.) through redi­rect­ed funds from the exten­sive police bud­get in order to make Win­nipeg a safe and enjoy­able place to be for all mar­gin­al­ized people.

As was clear­ly dis­played by our event and acknowl­edged by the WPS pub­licly, the com­mu­ni­ty does a damn good job at keep­ing every­one safe. Ulti­mate­ly, the peo­ple keep the peo­ple safe, not the police. This is why they know vol­un­teers, as well as com­mu­ni­ty owned, oper­at­ed and run services/​organizations will be able to effec­tive­ly take over what legal respon­si­bil­i­ties the police cur­rent­ly have. Thus, trans­lat­ing into real safe­ty for all.

Jus­tice For Black Lives Win­nipeg demands that the City of Win­nipeg work with a col­lab­o­ra­tive group of BIPOC grass­root orga­niz­ers to deter­mine where all redi­rect­ed funds from the defund­ed police bud­get should be dis­trib­uted with­in the com­mu­ni­ty. Those direct­ly on the ground doing the work them­selves know what is required, their voic­es need to be heard.

Jus­tice For Black Lives Win­nipeg demands that the City of Win­nipeg work with a col­lab­o­ra­tive group of BIPOC grass­root orga­niz­ers to deter­mine where all redi­rect­ed funds from the defund­ed police bud­get should be dis­trib­uted with­in the com­mu­ni­ty. Those direct­ly on the ground doing the work them­selves know what is required, their voic­es need to be heard.

To donate to, or sup­port, the impor­tant work being done by Jus­tice For Black Lives Win­nipeg vis­it their web­site.

Anishia­tive is a grass­roots Indige­nous youth lead­er­ship pro­gram based in Win­nipeg’s North End. The group aims to spark change with­in the com­mu­ni­ty through vol­un­teerism. What start­ed with distribut­ing food in the com­mu­ni­ty has now grown into a wider ini­tia­tive, with vol­un­teers clean­ing up lit­ter and sharps, col­lect­ing coats, win­ter gear and oth­er essen­tial items for those in need and provid­ing food to passersby.

Art­sJunk­tion start­ed with a dream to share resources, repur­pose ​‘waste’ mate­ri­als, and pro­vide teach­ers, artists, orga­ni­za­tions and all com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers with access to high qual­i­ty arts and crafts sup­plies. Since ArtsJunktion’s incor­po­ra­tion in 2007, Art­sJunk­tion mb has grown from a ​‘cre­ative reuse’ dream into an orga­ni­za­tion with 2000 mem­bers, a group of loy­al mate­ri­als donors, its own depot space in the heart of Winnipeg’s Exchange Dis­trict, and art and cre­ative reuse work­shops. Art­sJunk­tion gath­ers reusable mate­ri­als from busi­ness­es — mate­ri­als that would oth­er­wise be con­sid­ered waste — sorts them and makes them avail­able to the pub­lic at our depot. All sup­plies are avail­able take-what-you-need, pay-what-you-can.

They also offer work­shops that are fun, friend­ly and open to every­one! They hire local artists (who are paid fair wages) to facil­i­tate skill-devel­op­ing work­shops on var­i­ous art tech­niques. You can learn, make, and explore cre­ative reuse and sus­tain­able art prac­tices. Plus, all work­shops are an ArtsJunktion Social Enter­prise: grow your artis­tic abil­i­ties while sup­port­ing local artists AND invest­ing in ArtsJunktion!

CommUnity204, which is a vol­un­teer orga­ni­za­tion most­ly made up of youth and young adults who were or are involved with Child and Fam­i­ly Services.

The group works to help mar­gin­al­ized peo­ple with access to basic needs, such as water, cloth­ing and food, harm reduc­tion, safe­ty and hous­ing in col­lab­o­ra­tion with sim­i­lar groups across the city.

They believe in heart work and peo­ple help­ing people!

Com­mu­ni­ty is UNITY!

Lat­er­al empa­thy • Lat­er­al Love • Lat­er­al Unity

The Mood Dis­or­ders Asso­ci­a­tion of Man­i­to­ba is a self-help orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to pro­vid­ing sup­port, edu­ca­tion, and advo­ca­cy for those liv­ing with a mood dis­or­der, co-occur­ring dis­or­ders, or oth­er men­tal health ill­ness­es. They increase pub­lic aware­ness about mood dis­or­ders and empow­er peo­ple to devel­op hope and recov­ery, and build an under­stand­ing com­mu­ni­ty in the aware­ness of mood dis­or­ders through pro­vid­ing sup­port and recov­ery to those liv­ing with mood dis­or­ders. They strive to be a cen­tre of excel­lence for grass­roots com­mu­ni­ty men­tal health in an open yet con­fi­den­tial atmosphere.

On episode two, we’re joined by Eric Olek to talk about his endeav­ours with Fri­day Knights. Eric is a long time com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­er and cre­ative type. From man­ag­ing and host­ing events, help­ing artists find their cre­ative foot­ing to every­thing in between, Fri­day Knights is a true com­mu­ni­ty sta­ple. Please join us to learn more about the process/​sto­ry behind the brand and how they are try­ing to bring out the best for this city.

On episode one of Engage!, we speak with Elliott Walsh, Man­ag­er of Stu­dio 393, a free youth-led arts stu­dio & an ini­tia­tive of Winnipeg’s Graf­fi­ti Art Pro­gram­ming Inc.

The Graf­fi­ti Gallery offers emerg­ing young artists an oppor­tu­ni­ty to show their work and has been able to fill a void in Win­nipeg’s arts and cul­ture scene. More than 700 emerg­ing artists have per­formed or shown their work through the gallery.

If you have ques­tions about G.A.P. or are inter­est­ed in get­ting involved, please email info@​graffitigallery.​ca