The Newo Yotina Friendship Centre is planning to continue services for their clients after a fire forced them to close their main building.
The organization held a team meeting and created an action plan to address the needs they can currently fill.
Beginning immediately, the centre says it will be going mobile in their neighborhood.
“For our harm reduction and our drop-in Centre, we have mobilized. We are driving around the heritage area checking in on our clients,” said Teresa Innis, the executive director of Newo Yotina Friendship Centre.
The centre will also begin their afternoon lunch program which will be served at 3:30 p.m. outside of their building Monday through Friday.
The Queen City Wellness Pharmacy is a neighbour to the friendship Centre and Sarah Kozusko who is the pharmacy’s manager said the temporary loss of the Centre is devastating for the community because of the many services they offer, especially when it comes to harm reduction.
“The friendship Centre is the only safe consumption site in the city. They stop a lot of overdoses. The faster they get up and moving, we can’t wait for that,” Kozusko said.
It’s been a few days, and the pharmacy has already seen an influx of people coming in and looking for services found at the friendship centre.
Kozusko said when one of the organizations on the ground abruptly gets taken out of commission, it puts on a strain within the community they all work for.
“These services, these places offer an on ramp into the system so that people can have more control of their lives,” said Kozusko.
“Without them it’s really hard to find a way to move forward,” she added.
For the time being, the Newo Yotina Friendship Centre will be taking up temporary residence at the Kikakihtanaw Centre. Located at 1930 Rae Steet, starting March 31.
“The location keeps us central to downtown and easily accessible to our clients. We extend our sincere gratitude to the team at the YWCA for extending us valuable office space to work from while our space is being repaired,” the centre said in an email to CTV News.
The consumption site and drop-in will remain temporarily closed; the centre added.
