REGINA — It’s a proposed hub intended to create opportunities in North Central.
Growing Young Movers (GYM) is aiming to construct a Building Futures Collective Hub facility in the heart of the neighbourhood.
“We can’t do what we need to do without having a full-time facility like this,” said Brian Lewis, executive director of GYM, at Regina’s executive committee meeting on Wednesday.
For the past several months, GYM has operated a social enterprise focused on snow removal, grass cutting, graffiti removal and weed control on City of Regina land bank properties in North Central, as well as responding to service requests for home maintenance throughout the city from its base at Campbell Collegiate.
Lewis said the new hub is intended to provide the space needed for equipment and meetings while allowing the organization to grow and remain sustainable.
“We continue to think about how we can evolve, grow and sustain. Ideally, if we can make any small profits off our work, it goes back to the youth development side of our organization.”
The hub’s goal isn’t solely to improve work efficiency; it also aims to encourage North Central residents to invest back into their community.
“The more work that can be done in the community by the folks living in the community, the more dollars stay in there, and their wages go back into the community,” said Lewis.
The social enterprise is also looking ahead to future work, including piloting homes for younger people.
“We can be fabricating homes for young people and young people in the care of the provincial government as well,” said Lewis.
Lewis said GYM plans to teach students at Scott Collegiate fabrication skills, with the goal of eventually hiring them through the organization.
By next summer, the social enterprise could add eight new full-time employees to its current staff of four full-time employees.
After receiving unanimous consent from Regina’s executive committee, the hub will require final approval at next Wednesday’s city council meeting.
Once fully approved, vacant property owned by the province at 202 Retallack St. would be transferred to the city and then sold to GYM for $1.
As part of the agreement, GYM’s new hub would receive a five-year tax break.
Meanwhile, funding for the hub would primarily come from the City of Regina and PrairiesCan. The city intends to provide $300,000 through its Housing Accelerator Fund’s housing incentives program pilot repair and acquisition grant, while $450,000 in funding from PrairiesCan is still pending. Lewis also mentioned the organization has secured other grants to help construct the space.
Lewis said the development is another small step toward showing North Central residents that they are valued and that their community matters.
“They [the people of North Central] say it all the time; they feel North Central is not part of the city. I feel that is changing based on what we’re seeing and what we’re trying to do, and we’re just a small part of it.”
