M.L. Friendship Centre gets bigger space for Emergency Receiving Home

Meadow Lake’s Northwest Friendship Centre will soon have more space for the children in their care after acquiring a home from the Housing Authority.

The home is a temporary holding placement for children in social service care. Wanda Lantz, the location’s supervisor, said children are currently being cared for in an apartment the Door of Hope owns. She added, typically the kids stay for 15 to 30 days while social services finds a permanent home, or determines the child can return home to his or her parents.

“The ministry has deemed the children to be in need of protection and apprehended them that way, not by police,” she said.

Lantz added staff have little to no knowledge of why children are placed in their care. Some cases could be because of parenting issues while others are for orphans or children switching foster homes however the reasons children are there are confidential.

The biggest positive about having an Emergency Receiving Home in the city according to Lantz is the kids don’t leave their community as long as space is available.

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“(Before having an Emergency Receiving Home) we had children going to Regina, Fort Qu’Appelle, North Battleford, so visiting parents when in care is a challenge,” she said. “By having an emergency receiving home in our community the parents can access and visit their kids at the visitation centre in the Friendship Centre, so there isn’t that huge barrier for travel.”

While the apartment is filling the children’s need, Lantz said the service was in need of more space.

“They need a yard. So I pushed to get the Ministry (of Social Services) to agree to fund something bigger,” she said.

With funding secured for a house in Meadow Lake’s West end, Lantz said furnishings are being brought in this week with the home being in full operation hopefully, in the next two weeks.

The home has five beds for apprehended children. Lantz said while the home is meant to be a temporary living situation, there are some circumstances in which children may have to stay past 30 days.

The home will be staffed 24/7. Lantz added the Friendship Centre is looking for casual employees to work in the home.

Colton Swiderski is meadowlakeNOW’s municipal affairs, crime and court, health and education reporter. He can be reached at cswiderski@jpbg.ca or tweet him @coltonswiderski.