Thompson to get northern Manitoba’s first Huddle youth hub

Young people in northern Manitoba will be able to get mental health care, primary care and social supports in one place when Huddle Thompson opens in March 2027, the provincial government said Monday.

The new site will operate out of BGC Thompson at 365 Thompson Dr. and offer free, low-barrier services to people aged 12 to 29, Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said in a provincial news release. It will be the first Huddle to serve northern Manitoba.

Huddles are the province’s version of integrated youth services, a model that puts mental health and addictions help, primary care, Indigenous programming and social services under one roof so young people do not have to work through a chain of referrals and separate appointments. Existing sites operate in Winnipeg, Brandon, Selkirk and Portage la Prairie.

BGC Thompson and Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Inc., the organization that represents First Nations in northern Manitoba, were chosen through a competitive process to co-lead the site, the province said. MKO, Keewatin Tribal Council, The Link and other partners will run cultural and land-based activities for Indigenous youth in Thompson and nearby First Nations communities.

“Huddle Thompson will make it easier for youth in northern Manitoba to connect with services in one location, closer to home,” Smith said, adding the site was developed with community organizations and Indigenous leaders.

The province said it spends more than $3.2 million a year across eight Huddle sites, including $400,000 for the new northern location. That money is administered by United Way Winnipeg.

Ottawa is also putting $10 million over five years into United Way Winnipeg to build capacity across the Huddle Manitoba network, including the Thompson site. Rebecca Chartrand, the federal minister of Northern and Arctic Affairs, said the “one-stop-shop” approach can spare families a series of medical appointments, referrals and long waits.

Sherry Gott, Manitoba’s advocate for children and youth, said the site will bring services together in a setting that “reflects the cultures, experiences and priorities of northern youth.”

The release left several questions open. It did not say how many staff the Thompson site will have, what hours it will keep, whether doctors or nurse practitioners will work there in person, or how many young people it expects to serve in its first year.

It also did not say whether the federal money comes from Ottawa’s $500-million Youth Mental Health Fund. A Canada News Media review in September found about $213 million of that fund had been publicly assigned to projects.

If you find reporting like this useful, consider supporting Canada News Media, an independent Canadian newsroom with no corporate parent.

Photo: The wolf mural on Highland Tower in Thompson, Man. File photo by TheTrueNorthStrongAndFree1 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.