Stretching out in new location

Community Outreach Centre officially opens in former Charlottetown Curling Club

People were relaxed and milling about on Friday, June 11 not long after the Community Outreach Centre officially opened the doors at its new location in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

Due to client privacy reasons, The Guardian wasn’t permitted to speak to anyone officially but was invited in for a brief tour of the former Charlottetown Curling Club and chatted with some of the staff.

Some clients were just relaxing on couches reading while others were on the computers, scouring the Internet for jobs and housing possibilities.

Needless to say, the new digs were a welcome change.

The outreach centre had been operating out of the Smith Lodge on Weymouth Street. It closed on the night of Thursday, June 10. The much more spacious curling club location opened the next morning.

The provincial Department of Social Development and Housing has signed a sixmonth lease with the owner of the curling club to operate the centre.

“It feels awesome; it’s really great,’’ Lt. Emily Newbury, executive director of the Salvation Army in Charlottetown which is responsible for staffing the outreach centre, said in describing how it felt to be in the new space. “Throughout the past week, we’ve been moving in what we can slowly, making sure that services could still be provided … at Smith Lodge.’’

The centre offers support to people seeking financial assistance, counselling, food and housing. Clients can also make phone calls and use computers, do their laundry and access washrooms.

The centre opened in January 2020 at 211 Euston St. but it only lasted a few months because the property wasn’t properly zoned. Since then, it has operated from Birchwood Intermediate School, then at the Smith Lodge on Weymouth Street.

Newbury said that location presented challenges.

“The space didn’t (give us) the ability to have programming on site. You could meet and you might be able to have two or three people in a room (because of) COVID requirements and distancing,” she said.

The new space is better for clients and staff.

“We can now serve more people at once, even with CPHO guidelines.’’’

The current location has an upper level where service providers can meet with clients in private and where meetings can be held.

She added they are also grateful for the community support, referring to the ‘Yes in my backyard’ T-shirt campaign that kicked off in May in response to some local opposition to the new location.

Newbury said more than 300 people have accessed the centre since it opened in January 2020, adding that an average of 35 to 40 people were dropping into the Smith Lodge on a daily basis.

The Salvation Army official said she can’t comment on what happens when the lease runs out later this year. That’s a decision that will be left up to the province.