West Broadway Community Services Update and Call for Volunteers
1JustCity's West Broadway site is seeking volunteers for the following programs:
1-2 Volunteers to assist with the Bingo program, Thursdays, 2 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Involves calling out Bingo numbers, checking cards, hosting guests.
2-4 Volunteers for our Shower/Laundry program, Tuesdays & Wednesdays (1-2 volunteers for each day), 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. Involves supervising the shower, assisting guests with their laundry, providing guests with a towel, soap, shampoo, etc. and washing the towels used at the end of the program.
Dinner Service volunteers for our Dinner program, Monday-Thursday, 4 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. Involves greeting guests, serving food/drinks, washing dishes, and clean-up.
Assisting with our Resource Support Drop-In, Wednesdays, 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. Involves meeting with guests as they come in for a cup of coffee and refreshments, and providing resource referrals to community services they may need. Resource lists will be provided to assist you.
Kitchen Help volunteers, Monday-Thursday, 10 p.m. - Noon. Assist our Food Services Manager with chopping veggies, baking, sorting donations, and washing dishes.
If any of these volunteer opportunities look interesting to you, or if you wish to learn more about our other programs, please contact Melanie Reimer at wbsitelead@1justcity.ca
An update on what’s been happening at 1JustCity’s West Broadway site:
Hello from 1JustCity’s West Broadway site! I am Melanie Reimer, the Site Lead at West Broadway. I thought I would forward a bit of an update about what’s been happening over at the West Broadway site, formally known as West Broadway Community Ministry. To start, for those of you who may not be aware of the work West Broadway does, here is a synopsis:
1JustCity is an organization that supports three drop-in community centres in Winnipeg’s core neighbourhoods: West Broadway, the West End and Osborne Village. Our services include daily meals, art, senior’s programs, sharing circles, haircuts, showers, laundry, toiletries, and clean undergarments. In the winter months we also run the pop up warming centre in Osborne Village called Just a Warm Sleep.
What guides our work every day at West Broadway are the 1JustCity 4 pillars:
1. To love the Underloved
2. Work towards Reconciliation
3. Grow Individuals’ Capacity
4. Build Inclusive Communities
I started my position as the Site Lead at West Broadway at the end of June 2022, about 9 months ago, which was about 6 months after West Broadway joined the 1JustCity family. West Broadway’s guests and volunteers were in the midst of many challenging changes.
There were many staff changes when I arrived. Lynda Trono, West Broadway's very popular and dearly loved Minister also retired from her position just 2 weeks before I started, which left me huge shoes to fill. There was also uncertainty about what it meant that West Broadway would be governed by the 1JustCity board of directors and management staff.
We had a lot of different summer students coming and going between the three 1JustCity sites. I was the only stable staff at the site for a couple months, and I was somewhat overwhelmed!
Thankfully I was provided a great deal of assistance from Harvey, the Site Lead at Oak Table, and Borden Moneyas was hired and assigned to West Broadway as our Indigenous Cultural Program and Housing staff. Before long, Borden and I found the rhythm of the site, and started building relationships with both our guests and volunteers.
Then September came, and we were thrown back into the fire! The summer students were done their time with us, and our long time cook, Zyta retired. Borden and I found ourselves the only two staff holding up the site and its programs. Very little administration, programming or housing support was being done at this time, we were just there to get through each day, and make sure whatever programs were scheduled to run continued.
Early October Adam Flood joined Borden and I as our Food Services Manager. I can say that it was then that I felt like we were able to predict how each day would go. We could now be proactive rather than reactive, and I could respond to emails.
Borden started having opportunities to meet with our guests who were looking for housing, and best of all, the meals we were now serving were incredible in variety, nutritional value, and a good serving size.
I remember how utterly quiet the dining room was that first dinner Adam prepared! With Adam now a part of our team, I could focus on the administrative tasks, and start to consider programs we could offer in addition to the ones already running.
Adam and I took a look at how we were offering our emergency food program, and after lengthy discussions with the volunteers involved with the program, Adam’s vast experience as a Food Manager, and while keeping our 4 pillars in mind that guide our decision making at West Broadway, we decided we would vastly change the program.
Once a month Adam moves food donations upstairs to our drop-in area, and sets up tables with quantity amounts indicated for the items on each table. Our guests are welcomed into the site, invited to a cup of coffee, and meet with a volunteer to see how else we can support them in matters of food security, such as assisting them to apply for Harvest Manitoba, or providing referrals to alternate food programs available throughout the city. Then the volunteer guides the guest through the tables Adam has set up, where they can choose items they need or want from what is provided, and based on the amounts Adam has indicated.
In addition to the food offered through this program, we have applied to Harvest Manitoba to become a food bank site. This will encourage our guests to use this valuable and sustainable food security resource, while still receiving items to supplement their hampers.
This program, though being a lot of work to offer, has become very popular. Rather than our guests receiving a pre-made bag of food through a window every two months, they now have monthly access to resource supports, a warm cup of coffee, more food options and the ability to choose which food items they need. They are also able to access hygiene supplies, and warm clothing such as mittens, socks, hats or scarves.
As we started to solidify as a staff team, I believe our volunteers also started to feel good about the team we were building, and the culture we were trying to create at West Broadway. Borden reached so many of our guests in ways other Housing staff in the community could not. His clients trust him, and it’s obvious Borden really cares. Borden’s incredibly calm demeanor and remarkable ability to de-escalate situations that can arise at any time helped to make the dinner drop-in a predictable and safe environment.
We soon realized that Borden’s role was far too stretched between housing and ICP, and it was decided he would be our full-time housing staff, and we would hire a full-time ICP staff. Just last week we welcomed Phoenix Campbell to our West Broadway team, and it is remarkable how quickly she has fit in.
Our programming is starting to take off, and starting in March we hope to offer a variety of Indigenous Cultural programs, Bingo, knitting, shower & laundry drop-in times, movie afternoons, resource support drop-ins, Sharing Circle, a sobriety support group, Chiropractic care, 55+ programming and drop-in, and as always, dinner Monday through Thursday. This summer we hope to provide a couple of field trips beyond the traditional Beach Day to Bird’s Hill Park, including a trip to the Bannock Point Petroforms in the Whiteshell.
At Christmas time we received a donation of teddy bears, the last one just passed out to a very happy child this past week. Friday meetings with our staff team provides time when we can debrief challenging situations that arose in the week, but also find the humour in those moments. Our days can be incredibly challenging, but there is also so much good. In an hour we can have some of the scariest moments, then followed by some of the most wonderful.
I understand that West Broadway has had a Christmas tradition with Shaarey Zedek to provide a wonderful Christmas meal to our guests on Christmas Day. In learning about the many Christmas meals our guests have access to throughout the Christmas Season, we decided to switch things up to spread out the calendar of events to February, a time when it is cold and dark outside, and the goodwill of the Holiday Season wanes. As such, Shaarey Zedek planned a wonderful Valentine’s Day themed meal, which was provided the Sunday before Valentine's Day. The event was well attended and received.
Highlights each day for me is chatting with our guests, who more often than not bring with them a jovial mood. There are times when we have a musician with an accordion or guitar playing throughout the dinner, and children who may be in attendance come right up to them and dance with so much joy.
Our dedicated and hard working volunteers add to our team in ways beyond my ability to articulate. Their willingness to roll up their sleeves, serve and support our guests with a friendly smile, and conversation, and their contribution to the West Broadway community and culture amazes me every day. We absolutely could not do what we do without them.
If I have any “asks” at this time please donate mittens or gloves. Ongoing food donations are always welcome, and will certainly be put to good use either in the preparation of the healthy meals Adam creates for the dinner program, or to go out as part of the monthly food bank.
I would also invite you to consider volunteering! We certainly could use more volunteers to join our wonderful team. Positions include daytime hours to assist with meal preparation, our shower & laundry program, or assist with our dinner service from 4 - 6:30 p.m. If you have a background in resource referral, or would like to sit with our guests to discuss food and resource needs and find ways to help, our Resource Support Drop-in and monthly Food Bank programs might be a fit for you.
If you are interested to learn more about 1JustCity, our West Broadway site, or to volunteer, please visit the 1JustCity website: www.1justcity.ca
We have come a long way in the short time I’ve been at West Broadway, and I’m excited to see where we go from here. It is work that is very rich and meaningful, and I feel incredibly privileged to be part of it.
