Risebridge is a community connection centre, located at 520 Prideaux Street. They offer a low-barrier safe space, empowerment programming, community engagement activities, and support services for the mid island area.
PAN was recently able to connect with two invaluable members of the Risebridge team, Jovonne Edriem Johnson, Executive Director and Marnie Boers, Director. We are grateful that they were willing to take some time and share about the important role of Warmreach in Nanaimo.
What is Risebridge Warmreach? What does it offer?
Risebridge Warmreach is our warming centre, funded by the City of Nanaimo to operate daily from 9-4. We offer coffee, snacks, a community clothing closet, free laundry and resources connections.
What are some of the challenges involved in offering a warming centre?
The challenges around operating a community warming centre unfortunately focus a lot around stigma and stereotypes. Contrary to assumptions, we have actually been accessed by many young families struggling with poverty and food insecurity. Also, we lack funding to provide any “extras”, so we rely on the community for clothing donations to keep our closet stocked. We frequently do community call outs for necessary donations of gloves, toques, and other survival gear.
What are the best ways for the community to offer support to your warming centre?
The best way to support our warming centre is by following along on our social media channels – either Facebook or Instagram. We use these platforms to request specific items or to share a list of things that we are currently looking for. Just before the last snow storm, we had many community members send us items off our Amazon wish-list which gets directly sent to our team. I don’t think people realize that we don’t “stock” items. The need in the community we serve is so great that donated items all go out the same day that they are received. Financial donations are always appreciated and sending them by email money transfer to risebridgeproject@gmail.com works best.
City funding for the warming center ends in March. What kinds of services will Risebridge continue to offer at that point?
We always have to be planning at Risebridge. We want to continue to answer emergent calls in community. We plan to keep our doors open on Tuesday mornings throughout the year. Our core staff is committed to social justice and we often work on a volunteer basis. Keeping our doors open on Tuesdays also creates a space for Kim from Shoes for You to distribute footwear to community members, allows folks to come in to use our computers to complete applications and finally provides an opportunity to connect guests to other agencies in community. Our clothing closet is still accessible on Tuesdays, along with our free laundry.
As for programming – we will have to see how the grants pan out. We are hopeful to keep our doors open to continue working within the community. In the past 2 weeks alone we were used as a starting point for 4 people getting access to treatment. These are big wins in the current climate of our city. People have to have a safe space to start – Risebridge is that place for so many.
Poverty Advocacy Nanaimo 