A homeless shelter in North Battleford has been renovated and is welcoming its first clients back Thursday afternoon.
Miywasin Kikimaw, formerly the Lighthouse, is reopening its doors this afternoon after holding an opening ceremony where the newly renovated building was smudged.
The shelter nearly closed down in March due to lack of funding.
Métis Nation-Saskatchewan then stepped in and committed to fund it for six months until Sept. 30.
The Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs have since taken over, committing to funding for another six month period.
Roland Knight, the new director of Miywasin Kikimaw which means ‘A beautiful place’, says they’ve renovated the building and there’s now more space for clients.
“Now, we have showers and pretty much everything is updated,” he said. “(There’s) a new kitchen, there’s a lot more space. We took a lot of walls down that didn’t need to be there. There’s no office space anymore so we’d be working in the common area always.”
Knight said he has many ideas for new programming at the shelter.
“As director, my plans are to bring in programs for the clients like we’re going to have computers in there so that they can do their resume, cover letter, job search and all that stuff. (We will also) do one on one counselling.”
Knight said clients will also soon be able to participate in art and fitness programming.
He said clients will now have access to an in-house Elder for guidance.
Knight said the shelter’s goal is to get clients to achieve independence through the programming.
“The foremost would be to try to deal with the addictions, the mental health issues.” he said. “This is what we have to work on first to get them to know their strengths and to leave the weaknesses that they’ve had to be dependent on a shelter and try their best to be independent. This is what our goal is, we want them to be independent.”
(PHOTO: Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs logo. File photo.)