The federal government is providing $4.2 million to expand and renovate the building where Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre operates a community care site.
Federal cabinet minister Dan Vandal made the announcement at a news conference with Ma Mawi executive director Tammy Christensen on Monday morning.
The provincial government previously announced $300,000 in funding for the building at 575 Larsen Ave., in the Elmwood area. Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre Inc. is spending $800,000, and other partners are also contributing.
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SA rendering of the exterior of the expanded Larsen Family Care Centre.
Ma Mawi, an Indigenous-led community resource organization based in Winnipeg, also operates a sister site at 363 McGregor St. It took over the Larsen Avenue building in 2020 and has been using it as a community drop-in and resource centre — offering lunches, a family dinner program, emergency food supports, and parenting and sewing groups — since 2022.
The renovated building will be Manitoba’s first dedicated Indigenous-led family care centre, a federal government news release said, adding the expanded space will also be safer, accessible and more energy-efficient. It will be called the Larsen Family Care Centre.
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The interior lobby of the expanded centre will have a wood ceiling.
“The site will serve the surrounding community as a drop-in space, offering a range of trauma-informed and culturally relevant family resources, wraparound support services, and programming to nurture children and families,” the release said.
Christensen said the initiative was “a natural next step” in the area.
“The Larsen care site will ensure families have access to necessary resources and wraparound supports that will help keep our families together,” she said in the release.
fpcity@freepress.mb.ca