The Île-à-la-Crosse Friendship Centre is set to get a new building.
The organization which runs the facility in the northern village has been given $2 million to construct a new building in the community. Île-à-la-Crosse Friendship Centre Executive Director Myra Malboeuf said they are in need of a new building as they have started offering more programming to people over time and the current facility cannot accommodate them.
“We really had no way to expand,” she said.
The money for the new building is being provided by the National Association of Friendship Centres which is working in partnership with Indigenous Services Canada.
Currently the friendship centre in Île-à-la-Crosse offers a range of programming including the Aboriginal Court Worker Program, Aboriginal Head Start Program as well as prenatal nutrition programming to name a few. Malboeuf said their programming is spread out over a number of different locations and with a new building the hope is the friendship centre will be able to offer everything in one place.
“We want to put all our programs together in one area,” she said.
Malboeuf added they are also hoping the new building will be able to house a gym and commercial kitchen.
Currently the friendship centre is in talks with the local government in the northern village about being given land for the new building. Malboeuf said they are hoping to put their new building in the northern portion of the community, she added some of the early feedback they’ve heard from clients is also supportive of this idea.
“A few of them were hoping we’d put it in the north end of town,” she said.
When it comes to breaking ground on the new building, Malboeuf explained they are hoping to be do so by next spring. She said getting the new building up and going is expected to be a two year process.
“We’re really excited, I know there’s a lot of hard work still to come,” she said.