Little Stars PLAYhouse Breaks Ground in Partnership with Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF)

Construction of new Little Stars PLAYhouse moving forward through partnership with MMF

Today the Métis Federation of Manitoba (MMF) joined the volunteer-based nonprofit Woman Healing For Change in celebrating the start of the construction of the Little Stars PLAYhouse , the future home of the North End Stay and Play (NESP) program. It will be built at 681 Selkirk Avenue between Parr and McKenzie Streets in Winnipeg, in partnership with the MMF and two of its affiliates, the Métis Women’s Secretariat and the Louis-Riel Funding Corporation.

This daycare will help support families in the North-end neighborhood. The construction of the daycare will see the creation of twenty-eight new child care spaces, four spaces for infants and twenty-four spaces for preschool children. Eight places will be allocated for children from birth to age five who participate in the NESP program, which is offered during the day. In the evening, the daycare will offer music programs with instruments and songs.

The NESP program, which started more than 10 years ago, is a weekly program organized in different parts of the neighborhood by a team of volunteers from the Woman Healing For Change organization. The latter, founded in 1993, aims to remove the barriers women and their children face and promote healing for victims of trauma, violence, abuse and discrimination.

“Children deserve to have access to a place to play and this partnership will ensure those in the North-end neighborhood have equal access to resources that support healthy child development,” said Anita Campbell, spokesperson of the Secretariat and Minister of Finance and Human Resources of the MMF.

“This is just one example of the many child care centers the MMF will be supporting in Manitoba,” said MMF President David Chartrand.

This year MMF invested $ 9 million in Métis culturally appropriate child care initiatives in Métis communities across Manitoba, including Duck Bay, Swan River, Dauphin and Thompson.

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