Life in Winnipeg’s core areas can be pretty rough for young families struggling to keep their heads above water, especially as winter drags on and the economy continues to nosedive. Enter the Family Centre.

Located on the fourth floor of Portage Place Shopping Mall, hidden from the general public but certainly not from those in need, the Family Centre has been dealing with the stresses of Winnipeg families for an astounding 73 years.

They presented their services to a small group at the University of Winnipeg’s Wii Chiiwaakanak Learning Centre last Wednesday, Mar. 4.

The downtown learning centre brought the Family Centre in to talk to students and community members as a part of their new weekly info sessions about services around the Spence area.

The sessions started Feb. 11 and have so far featured eight different community organizations.

Tricia Seymour, office assistant at Wii Chiiwaakanak, explained the purpose of the sessions.

“ There is an understanding in this city in particular that we get this as a community, that it counts to us.

Rhonda Chegus, Family Centre

“The most important thing is reaching that one person,” she said. “[The sessions] help put them on that path of healing.”

Including the Family Centre in the presentations was an easy choice. Seymour stated how great the centre is for the downtown community – she herself had used its services as a youth, and feels it can still help her as a mother.

Offering everything from in-home family support to counselling, the centre focuses on raising families ‘the right way’ – as a part of their community.

Seymour said counselling downtown is crucial for proper community growth.

“Personal counselling is vitally important… because self passes into family, family becomes community and community becomes society,” she said.

Today, stress continues to run high for those living under the poverty line in the inner city.

Money is the biggest issue for core-area families, explained Rhonda Chegus, director of counselling at the Family Centre, and the exhaustion families feel can take a long-term toll.

Vanda Fleury, a graduate student in native studies at the University of Manitoba, attended the session and was surprised by how easy the services were to come by.

She was particularly impressed with the Centre’s “cost-effective solutions for the families in need,” where the Centre assesses what a family can afford and then charges anywhere from zero to $70.

Any Winnipegger is eligible for support at the Family Centre, but getting in might be hard. All of the Centre’s programs have long waiting lists.

Yet according to Chegus, it isn’t all bad news for families in need. A United Way fundraiser earlier this year raised a substantial amount of money for the Centre, as donators responded to the economy-affected needs of the Winnipeg core community.

“People could have chosen not to contribute,” Chegus said. “But there is an understanding in this city in particular that we get this as a community, that it counts to us.”

Those interested in learning more about community services can drop by an info session at the Wii Chiiwaakanak Learning Centre, every Wednesday night from 5 to 7 p.m. until Mar. 25.

Published in Volume 63, Number 23 of The Uniter (March 12, 2009)