New community centre opens in Heritage neighbourhood

A new community centre — which one official said can simply be “a space to be” for people in Regina’s Heritage neighbourhood — opened Thursday.

The Mitâkuyé Owâs’ā Centre is located in the Municipal Justice Building on Halifax Street. The name means “all my relations” or “we are all related” in Dakota.

The building, which also houses a new fitness and training facility for the Regina Police Service (RPS), will host events for the Heritage Community Association (HCA), the RPS and the City of Regina.

The Mitâkuyé Owâs’ā Centre is located inside the old Municipal Justice Building. (Daniel Reech/980 CJME)

The HCA has a lease and office space within the building.

“For HCA, it’s going to be used for everything, including just a space to be,” said HCA executive director Wendy Miller.

“Lots of our clients outside who spend time in the shelters or potentially don’t have those four walls and roofs around them, they just need a spot to stay warm. So it’s something as simple as putting out magazines and having a cup of coffee with them or just enjoying that small talk.”

The HCA has a kitchen in the building and Miller said HCA staff is planning on preparing meals five mornings a week.

“(It’ll handle everything) between food rescues, food hampers, community kitchens, cooking for the seniors, cooking for the youth, cooking for our families and individuals,” she added.

The Mitakuyé Owâs’ā Centre received $7.5 million in funding from the provincial government’s Municipal Economic Enhancement Program as well as approximately $5 million from the city, according to Mayor Sandra Masters.

The project also received $500,000 from the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, a federally run program.

Masters said the building has numerous environmentally conscious inputs.

“There are solar panels that are going to provide a certain percentage of the heating, LED lightings throughout, energy efficient windows, controls on water usage so (we were) really paying attention to — as much as you can with a historic building — lower greenhouse gas emissions and higher efficiency when we’re doing these types of new projects as well,” Masters said.

Miller acknowledged the police presence might act as a barrier to the community when she was asked about raising awareness about the building being open to the public.

“To be realistic about what we have in this community, sometimes RPS and the city are a barrier for our clients,” she said. “It really just takes potentially staff going out and inviting (people) in.

“We do a lot of walking in the community (and) we do a lot of speaking. It’s about that relationship that we have with those members.”

Miller said the HCA has a staff of six but also has help from practicum students and youth mentors.

Bobbie Selinger, the city’s manager of community and recreation programs, said the space can be rented by the community.

“We really encourage the community to program here. The City of Regina itself will also be offering programs,” Selinger said.

“We’ll be offering an after-school youth program, we’ll be offering an evening teen program and then there will be more pop-up programming — things like our Indigenous storytelling.”

The added gymnasium is the new part of the historic building. It also features a multi-purpose room, a creative room and a stage that can act as a classroom.

A multi-use meeting room in the Mitakuyé Owâs’ā Centre. (Daniel Reech/980 CJME)