YWCA Prince Albert Chief Executive Officer, Donna Brooks. (Submitted)

By Alison Sandstrom

Looking ahead

Hope and the Future: YWCA Prince Albert wants to build on momentum of new cold-weather shelter

Dec 27, 2020 | 12:00 PM

The COVID-19 pandemic makes 2020 a year many may prefer to forget, but there is hope for the future. We’ve decided to make that the focus of our series of end-of-year stories.

One of the rare bright spots to come out of the pandemic was the creation of an expanded emergency winter shelter in Prince Albert, and there’s hope it will continue operations even after COVID-19 is gone.

Stepping Stones Shelter opened in November in response to concerns that the pandemic would increase the number of people sleeping rough in the city, at the same time distancing requirements decreased existing shelter capacities.

YWCA staff, Rob Dunlop (Homeward Bound Manager) and Tonya Kleinert (Stepping Stones Shelter supervisor) pose inside Stepping Stones Shelter ahead of opening night. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

The new shelter at the P.A. Exhibition Grandstand has double the beds of YWCA Prince Albert’s previous cold weather shelter in the basement of Our House downtown. The move into the larger space, which included increased staffing and extended hours, was made possible by a one-time top-up from a federal pot of money to address homelessness.

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“One of the big focuses is trying to build on the momentum of Stepping Stones,” YWCA Prince Albert CEO Donna Brooks told paNOW. “We’d like to see it as a year-round program and we would like to see it continued at the heightened funding level, which allows it to be staffed properly and have the proper services in place.”

Brooks said the success of the new shelter is the result of hard work by a number of different organizations in the city, including the Prince Albert Grand Council who provides daily hot meals there.

“There were some really huge great partnerships as a result of [Stepping Stones] and we’re hoping to be able to build on that and continue the program even after COVID is over,” she said.

Plans to grow in 2021

Brooks explained YWCA Prince Albert has other exciting projects on the horizon in 2021 and the organization is in the midst of working on a new strategic plan that will guide its operations into 2024.

“We know what we do with our programs, we do well, but we don’t have enough of them,” said Brooks, explaining a lot of the YWCA’s programs and have waitlists and its shelters are usually full.

A goal of the organization going forward will be to make its services – which include shelters, settlement services, employment and housing supports – available to more people.

“I’m excited about the coming year because it’s got to be better than the past one,” Brooks joked, adding she hopes to carry the positives things she’s learned during 2020 on into the future.

“There were some good things that came out of [the past year],” she explained. “We learned to work virtually when we had to, we learned to slow down, we learned that we can react to a crisis situation very quickly.”

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom