Drop-in centre pilot project welcomes newcomers to Neepawa

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Published on Tuesday, October 4, 2016

The Neepawa Parent Resource Drop-in Centre, a pilot program aimed at those new to the community, opened for the first time on Sept. 28.

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A free pilot program aimed at welcoming newcomers to town and providing them with information and resources is now available in Neepawa. The Neepawa Parent Resource Drop-in Centre is sponsored by Neepawa Area Immigrant Settlement Services (NAISS), the Beautiful Plains School Division (BPSD), the Prairie Mountain Health Authority (PMHA), Child and Family Services (CFS), Neepawa Ministerial, the Neepawa Public Library, the Town of Neepawa and Budz N’ Bloom Daycare. 

The free program, run out of the Neepawa Public Library’s meeting room the second and fourth Wednesday of each month, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., kicked off on Sept. 28. Rhonda Dickenson, of the BPSD, says the pilot, which is running on a six-month time frame, is a good place for new families to come and connect with each other and the community. It’s a welcoming atmosphere complete with coffee, juice and snacks and toys for children to play with.

“We encourage parents to bring their children, because then it’s an opportunity for us to look after the kids while they’re able to talk to each other,” Dickenson says.

Don Walmsley, coordinator of NAISS, says the pilot project was thought up after the different organizations had discussed the need for a centralized place people new to town could come to get information about life in Neepawa.

“We got together and we kicked around how to do that – what would it look like? So we devised this pilot project. We said we wanted to keep it straightforward, we wanted to keep it simple and it needed to be community-based and family-focused. It’s also going to be very much a dynamic thing, because at this point…we’re learning as we go,” Walmsley explains. “We’ve all sort of taken turns and responsibilities for covering a certain number of weeks as we go through. At the halfway point, we’re going to be taking a look and evaluating what we have learned, what’s worked and what hasn’t worked, what we need to do and what kind of feedback we’ve had.”

Walmsley says all parties involved have high hopes for the program, especially since a very similar one was quite successful in Brandon.