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The Nēwo Yōtina Friendship Centre, a safe consumption site located near Regina’s downtown, continues to see a record number of people using its services.
Executive director Michael Parker says the facility is responsible for more lives being saved as a result of the increased usage.
“In February, we were able to reverse seven potentially fatal overdoses on site,” Parker said. “There was probably more that were just prevented, because people were using with others as opposed to by themselves.
The Nēwo Yōtina Friendship Centre is the second safe consumption site in Saskatchewan and the first of its kind in Regina. (Logan Stein/980 CJME)
“It’s hard to give numbers behind that about what hasn’t happened, but we sort of know that that is part of the benefit of the site.”
The centre has been operating since June of 2021. When it first opened, there were fewer than 50 supervised consumptions, according to Parker.
In February, the centre saw 224.
Parker says it has always been about building trust in the community.
“This is like a brand new service in the city. People were unfamiliar and hesitant,” he said.
“I think the other thing we predicted when we started to open seven days a week is that we knew that there would be less of a chance of somebody showing up here and the door being closed.
“With that, people are more likely to keep coming back. So that consistency of being able to be open every day of the week has really helped build some momentum, and people are getting more and more comfortable with the idea of it.”
Aside from being a safe consumption site, an array of different programs including housing and health support, an outreach program intended to provide the youth with access to a wide variety of social and recreational activities and programs, and a pow wow program are all made available for people who are interested.
Nēwo Yōtina Friendship Centre executive director Michael Parker. (Logan Stein/980 CJME)
The increased usage in all programs has meant the centre’s space has been pushed to the limit.
“We’re at a point where the facilities we have are just inadequate and we’ve always known the room we set up was not meant to be long term,” Parker said.
“We’re really looking at what we can do about expanding the space. We’re kind of jam-packed on our main floor.”
Parker is hopeful the centre will be able to have a more permanent supervised consumption site as it pushes to shift from the overdose prevention site, which is provincially administrated, to a supervised consumption site, which is federally recognized.
“Our exemption from the province expires at the end of September, so our plan is to transition by October, and we want to make sure we have the facility piece dealt with as part of that,” he said.
The centre is operating solely on funding from the City of Regina as well as donations.
Parker says moving forward, help from the provincial government will go a long way in ensuring the centre remains open and preventing fewer overdoses as a result.
“It’s not getting any better by pretending it’s not a problem, and (Saskatchewan government officials) have acknowledged it’s an issue,” he said. “They’ve supported us in the sense that they permitted us to open.
“But I think we would love to see the province step up and kind of fulfil their mandate of dealing with this as a health issue as opposed to sloughing it off on municipalities and hoping the feds will rescue them.”