The Province of Manitoba is working with private groups to establish five hub sites that will offer expanded access to mental health and addiction services for youth in Manitoba.

The Manitoba government, Shared Health and a group of philanthropic partners led by United Way Winnipeg are expanding Integrated Youth Services (IYS) in Manitoba by awarding five additional Youth Hub sites.

“We are thrilled to be part of this. What United Way does is bring partners together and this time around we are working with philanthropic partners, the province and Shared Health and community groups to really make this happen” says Connie Walker, president and CEO of United Way Winnipeg.

“These hubs are another to support our youth in the province. Hubs bring together a wide range of services that a young person might including mental health support, addiction support, primary care, employment, education and cultural supports. They all come together under one roof.”

One of the five new hubs will be in downtown Brandon. Led by the Westman Youth for Christ (YFC) in partnership with the Brandon Friendship Centre, Career and Employment Youth Services (C.E.Y.S. Brandon), and the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba and supported by Prairie Mountain Health. The hub will continue to establish key partnerships driven by youth input as well the Centre for Critical Studies of Rural Mental Health at Brandon University will support ongoing youth-centred evaluation of the hub.

Dwayne Dyck, executive director of Westman YFC, says the new program will fill a void in services in the region.

“We aren’t looking at moving services to another location we are increasing and fine-tuning some of that. We are partnering with several groups including Brandon University to do ongoing assessments and adjustments to see if we are meeting the needs of area youth.”

Youth Hubs have been shown to:

  • improve access to mental health and addiction services for young people;
  • better co-ordinate and integrate mental health and addiction services with the broad range of care, supports and services needed by youth and families;
  • provide meaningful engagement and involvement for youth and their families in the planning, delivery, evaluation and continuous improvement of IYS;
  • more effectively provide early intervention and health promotion to help with issues before they become bigger and affect relationships, school, work or other aspects of a young person’s life;
  • decrease stigma around mental health and addictions; and
  • increase the quality of life for young people.

The five Youth Hub partnerships announced today were selected in response to a call for proposals issued in November 2020 and will serve many youth in some of the province’s highest-needs areas, the minister notes.

While much of the $4.8 million in support goes towards programs and portion will be used for some capital work.

“We have contractors working right now and we hope to have the hub site up and running by summer for sure,” Dyck says.

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