THUNDER BAY— With summer coming to an end and a cold Canadian winter on the way, PACE is hoping to finish its move to its new George Street location by the end of this week.
“We are right at the very end stages,” said Georgina McKinnon, executive director for PACE.
“Tomorrow, we put up our pictures, all our clients' artwork, and we will be ready to open here hopefully on Friday.”
McKinnon said the move has taken longer than expected due to supply issues, construction and some unexpected challenges.
“The lockers… are just getting put together; they took a while to come in,” she said. “So just your standard delays, I guess, and me being picky.”
The Thunder Bay-based PACE, which stands for People Advocating for Change through Empowerment, now operates its community outreach services in the city at 409 George Street and operates from Monday to Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on Saturday and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“I am so excited to just to have the extras to offer to the clients and that they have somewhere they can feel proud to call their own,” she said.
The centre is an essential resource for community members in the city, providing a warming centre in cold Canadian winters and a cooling centre in the dead heat of summer, Mckinnon said.
Some program efforts include social inclusion, sharing circles, educational workshops, and advocacy efforts, all aimed at fostering a stronger and more connected community, she said
“On average, we see, depending on the temperatures and paydays, 80 people are a slow day, and we've seen up to 300, 320 in a day,” she said.
“Now that we're right across from Shelter House, and right across from the tent city, I see our numbers increasing, especially everybody's excited to see the new space and to get the new amenities that we're going to have to offer,” she said.
The new location will also have new accessible washrooms, lockers, and multiple transitional housing units, providing clients with access to supportive housing, McKinnon said.
“So, with the HART hub and all the new funding that comes out, there's going to be quite a few transitional housing and supportive housing (units) coming up,” she said.
“For here we're going to have peer support going up and visiting them every day, supporting them, and we will have the case manager setting them up with whatever else they need, so it's going to be a good thing.”
In preparation for the new location opening, Mckinnon said community members can donate food and clothing.
“We are always looking for clothing, one thing we never really get is underwear and bras," she said. "That's something you kind of like to get new or fairly lightly used, but people don't donate those much, and we are always looking for food, proteins, veggies, fruits - the RFDA doesn't have them too often for us, and always looking for seasonal clothing.”
