REGINA —The thought of reviving North Central seems hopeless for many, but advocates in the community believe positive change is starting to happen.
Back in October, city council approved a one-time grant of $385,000 for a social enterprise company awarded to Growing Young Movers (GYM).
The idea was spearheaded by North Central Strong (NCS), a group recognized in February 2024 as a youth task force on neighbourhood revitalization in the area.
“[We’re] very excited for this change. And we're just happy to be a part of this process,” said Emily Webber, member of NCS.
Webber admitted feeling neglected by the city in the past, and wanted to use people’s perception of North Central as a driving force to showcase the strength and resiliency of the community.
Fellow NCS member Elizabeth Gabriel said she always felt disheartened by seeing human beings treated differently and wants North Central to be seen as any other place in the city.
“It's not North Central and the rest of the city. It's the city.”
Gabriel sees the effort to revitalize North Central as a showcase of a family coming together.
“There's nothing that we're going to lose by trying. Even if we fail, we're showing that we care.”
How will it work?
The social enterprise will help maintain land bank properties owned by the city throughout North Central, which includes snow removal, grass cutting, graffiti removal and weed control.
“We will drive around on a daily basis and make sure they look the way they any lot should look in Regina, and you'll be able to tell the lots we've taken care of,” said Brian Lewis, executive director of GYM.
These land bank properties are open to community and trust, non-profit builders and for-profit builders for affordable housing.
GYM plans to hire roughly eight to 10 employees for the social enterprise once it ramps up in the spring.
Equipment, including vehicles, snowblowers, lawn mowers and carpentry tools, will all be covered by the one-time grant.
Lewis expects the enterprise to become self-sustaining within two years.
“Once we pay for everything, we can then put that into the youth development side of our organization, so in essence, our social enterprise work could be feeding the kids in our after-school program or putting shoes on them or paying for the employment of a Grade 10.”
In a report, GYM is projecting year three of the social enterprise to generate nearly $83,000 in net profit.
This could increase as Lewis sees a future potential for GYM to provide maintenance works for residents of North Central.
“We want an elderly family or person who can't do that to know we'll negotiate a fair price to do that for them because we'll have the resources, we'll have the equipment, and the people who want to go beyond obviously take care of those homes,” said Lewis.
As for Webber, she is very excited for the future of North Central.
“Just to grow up from here and then to see that this much attention is being shown to this community is like an unexplainable feeling.”
