Revamped support hub opens at Winnipeg’s Millennium Library

ManitobaA new community support hub opened at Winnipeg’s Millennium Library on Friday, nearly a year after the library’s previous Community Connections space was shuttered due to lack of funding in the city’s 2025 budget. Downtown Resource Corner is open about 20 hours per week, offering mental health and social support servicesLauren Scott · CBC News · Posted: Oct 24, 2025 4:15 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesThe Millennium Library saw a 68.9 per cent increase in incidents from January to March this year over the same period in 2024. (Bryce Hoye/CBC)WARNING: This story contains mentions of suicide.A new community support hub opened at Winnipeg’s Millennium Library on Friday, nearly a year after the library’s previous Community Connections space was shuttered due to lack of funding in the city’s 2025 budget. Revamped as the Downtown Resource Corner — a joint effort of the provincial government and the Downtown Community Safety Partnership — the space will once again provide Winnipeggers with mental health and social service supports, alongside other essential services, the province said in a news release. Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said the province is “responding to a gap that we saw” in a space community members were already using to access support services. “Folks are already coming here. We need to be able to respond and meet people where they’re at,” Fontaine said. She said the Downtown Resource Corner “will not cost [taxpayers] anything” because existing resources are being reallocated from her department. The hub has staff available to help community members with employment and income issues, two mental health workers and a public health nurse from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. The Downtown Community Safety Partnership has several staff members on site to provide safety, wellness and outreach services.Members of the Mino’Ayaawag Ikwewag Indigenous women’s unit will be stationed at the hub as well, Fontaine said. DCSP executive director Greg Burnett said the reopened library hub offers Winnipeggers another place to access care. “This space — this very public space — is a location where it is wise and practical to meet the needs of our downtown community,” Burnett said. Downtown Community Safety Partnership executive director Greg Burnett, left, and Manitoba Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine attend a news conference to announce the new Downtown Resource Corner at the Millennium Library in Winnipeg on Friday. (Justin Fraser/CBC)”The DCSP has been and will continue to be a part of the effort to meet those needs in the moment, whether here in this space, in a back lane or at Portage and Main — wherever we need to help people,” he said. The announcement on Friday comes after a spike in safety and well-being incidents at the library since the previous Community Connections space was closed at the end of last year. In the first quarter of the year — from January to March — there were about three concerning incidents per day, said a report that was scheduled to be discussed at a meeting of the city’s community services committee in June. Those 309 incidents over the three-month period are about a 69 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2024. In August, a 40-year-old man died after jumping from the library’s fourth floor to his death — the second suicide at the library in less than a decade. The library’s fourth floor was closed to the public two weeks later after another person tried to go over the railing. Shortly after the incidents, the union that represents employees at the downtown library raised concerns about safety, calling for a reopening of the Community Connections space. Gord Delbridge, president of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500, said Millennium Library workers are happy that the hub is being re-established. “This is going to be better for Winnipeggers, this is going to be better for our community,” he said. Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said the Downtown Resource Corner will help “strengthen safety and well-being” in downtown Winnipeg. The supports available through the space will get people the help they need and address some of the root causes of crime, he said.”The Downtown Resource Corner is just another tool that will help make our downtown safer by connecting people with supports before situations escalate,” Wiebe said. Staff from the City of Winnipeg, which is responsible for library services, did not appear to be present at the Friday news conference. A spokesperson told CBC News that the city has a lease agreement with the DCSP to use the space. The Downtown Resource Corner will be open primarily in the afternoons, the province said, with evening hours once a week.If you or someone you know is struggling, here’s where to look for help:Canada’s Suicide Crisis Helpline: Call or text 988.Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868. Text 686868. Live chat counselling on the website.Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention: Find a 24-hour crisis centre.This guide from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health outlines how to talk about suicide with someone you’re worried about.WATCH | Revamped community support hub launched:Millennium Library launches revamped community support hubThe former Community Connections space in Winnipeg’s Millennium Library has reopened as the Downtown Resource Corner. It will be staffed by employment and income assistance workers, mental health workers and a public health nurse. The goal is to provide low-barrier services and crisis intervention, and help tackle the root causes of crime.ABOUT THE AUTHORLauren Scott is a Winnipeg-based reporter with CBC Manitoba. They hold a master’s degree in computational and data journalism, and have previously worked for the Hamilton Spectator and The Canadian Press.With files from Mike Arsenault