New space offers new opportunities

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This article was published 25/09/2017 (2792 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A local organization that works to help the homeless and underprivileged has moved their operation into a much larger space, and with the move hope to offer more programs, services and resources to assist those who need a helping hand in the southeast community.

“Family programming is always a priority,” Steinbach Community Outreach (SCO) executive director Irene Kroeker said, while sitting in the new children’s area at the SCO headquarters in Steinbach.

“We want to provide a welcoming and safe space for people and families to come and spend time together as a family.”

SCO is a Steinbach-based organization that works to help the poor and homeless in the southeast community by offering housing support, basic needs like food, clothing and toiletries, a drop-in area for families and assistance with accessing resources.

Along with programming, SCO also offers assistance to people looking to fill out paperwork for things like obtaining an ID card or social security number, or applying for social assistance.

Kroeker said they work on a “housing-first model” where their first priority is always to get families into housing, but she said there is more involved with helping those in need than simply getting them into a home and helping them with basic needs.

“We also want to offer a place where they can come so they feel like they have a community and can build relationships and connections, and that is what this place offers,” she said.

For years SCO offered a drop-in space of less than 500 square feet located at the Steinbach Mennonite Church on Loewen Ave., but about two weeks ago SCO moved their operation into a different space at the church, and they now have more than 6,000 square feet of space to work with.

Along with the new space, SCO also now has a whole lot of new ideas for what they can start to offer to their clients, and to the community.

“There are a lot of ideas that are percolating because we can now do some real programming,” Kroeker said. “We now have so many ideas that we are planning and that are in the works.”

The organization now has a large drop-in centre that features a sitting area, a children’s area where they will offer programming and activities for children, a games room where families can play a variety of games, a room where families can work on art projects, and a brand new kitchen area where they can now offer basic cooking and nutritional programming to families.

Kroeker said the goal of the organization is to get families to a place where they no longer need SCO’s services and can be self-sufficient, and she said programming is a big part of that goal.

“We want to start making a real difference to families that are in that cycle,” she said.

“We want to break that cycle.”

She added they are already planning a “family day” where one set of volunteers can be in the children’s area working with children, while another group of volunteers will be out in the sitting area working with parents.

Kroeker added they also want to expand or introduce a number of programs that are now in the works.

“We are getting it all organized but it’s coming along,” Kroeker said.

“We have had the most amazing donations, and we are absolutely overwhelmed with the generosity of the people that we have here in this community.”

SCO currently offers a drop-in program for families on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of each week from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at 345 Loewen Ave. in Steinbach.

More information on SCO and what they offer can be found by visiting steinbachcommunityoutreach.com.