Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION
Staff at The Women’s Resource Centre are breathing a collective sigh of relief now that they’ve found a new home.
The Resource Centre signed a two-year lease, beginning May 1, at 731 Princess Ave.
“It’s very exciting for the board, staff, clients, everybody,” said board member Jodi Wyman. “We were happy to be able to tell everyone that yes, we’ll still be open May 1st, and there will be a new location.”
The Resource Centre will be moving into the front corner of the former Westman Immigrant Services office.
“It’s smaller than our current location, but that means that it should be more affordable,” Wyman said. “And of course an amazing location on Princess … Just at the entrance to The Town Centre. A great high-exposure location.”
At the beginning of March, The Women’s Resource Centre was given a 60-day notice to vacate The Town Centre, or face a steep rent hike. The non-profit Resource Centre had been located in The Town Centre for more than a decade, paying very low rent.
Marlow Kirton, managing partner of The Town Centre, said it was time to bring the centre up to market rent, like the other tenants in the building.
The Resource Centre estimated they would be looking at paying 10 times the rent, which they couldn’t afford.
Since the notice, staff and board members have been working tirelessly to come up with a new location in time.
“We certainly pounded the pavement as our board and staff looked at many locations,” counsellor Kim Iwasiuk said. “One of our biggest concerns was staying downtown … just because many of the women use many of the other services downtown, so we wanted to be able to stay in this area so that they can remain connected.”
The Resource Centre asked for a “compassionate extension” to give them time to find a new home, and apply for grants. According to Wyman, a two-month extension was granted Tuesday, but only after they had notified The Town Centre they had signed the lease for the new location.
“We have to start paying rent in May, so there’s no point in staying in another location,” Wyman said. “But we finally got an answer on the extension.”
The Women’s Resource Centre provides counselling services for hundreds of women and children — many of whom are in crisis situations. Each month, an average of 500 women and children attend the centre for services like the daily breakfast program, domestic violence counselling, children’s counselling, free access to computers, assistance in job hunting, etc.
Iwasiuk said the resource centre will likely be closed for a few days during the move at the beginning of May.
“What we’re doing is making sure that all of our clients are aware of that,” Iwasiuk said. “We’re also doing some emergency case planning so if women are not able to connect with us that they do have other resources in the community.”
The resource centre’s board continues to look into other potential funders.
“We are absolutely going to be looking to community support even more so now than we were having to before,” Iwasiuk said, adding “I’m so in awe of the wonderful support from our community. I really have to say that, it has been just tremendous.”
» jaustin@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition April 12, 2012
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Staff at The Women’s Resource Centre are breathing a collective sigh of relief now that they’ve found a new home.
The Resource Centre signed a two-year lease, beginning May 1, at 731 Princess Ave.
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Staff at The Women’s Resource Centre are breathing a collective sigh of relief now that they’ve found a new home.
The Resource Centre signed a two-year lease, beginning May 1, at 731 Princess Ave.
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