Stemete7uw’i a Gathering Place Friendship Centre in 100 Mile House has closed it doors for the Summer hoping to reopen in September.
Manager Murray Casey said they’ve run out of funding for grants for their rent.
“A lot of the grants that are out there are for programming but priority is our building, our rent and things like that.” Casey said, “ The legion actually paid for this month’s rent for us so at least we’re good until the end of this month. Our rent is about $1400 a month for our little location.”
Casey said they’re hoping that if there are grants out there that the Friendship Centre could use specifically for their rent and day to day operation, and if not, then in September the Board will make a decision to hopefully not shut it down but that’s what we’re heading for.
“We’re working on obtaining grants as a Board. I have about four or five grants that just came through after we posted our notice that we may be able to receive.” Casey said, “We have 1 grant out now from Telus, there’s 1 from the Catholic Church that we’re going to reach out to, and I believe there’s 1 from the South Cariboo Community Enhancement Foundation that is available as well.”
Casey noted that he is hoping that they can be back up and running even before September but at least they’re giving the community a little bit of time to be aware of our closure.
Stemete7uw’i a Gathering Place Friendship Centre is open four hours, three days a week, where community members can come in to have coffee and socialize.
“We do usually provide lunch if there are enough people available,” Casey said, “that’s another thing we use our funding for to buy soup and bread for sandwiches so people can have a safe place to visit. There are a lot of Seniors in 100 Mile that is a lot of our clientele, we also provide services for our Indigenous community as well.”
Casey noted the Friendship Centre would have four to five people a week that would come in but right now they can have up to 20, 25, 30 people come through our doors everyday that we’re open looking for a quick meal at least once a day or be directed to other Organizations.
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