Non-profit Indigenous youth, family agency’s ‘strong heart’ beats in the Exchange

Zoongizi Ode, a non-profit organization that assists and advocates for Indigenous youth and families, showed off its new home Thursday.

Calling it a home is fitting for executive director Mary Burton, because she prefers to call her clients family members.

“When people walk in our doors, they’re greeted warmly. We sit with them. We listen to their story. We don’t ask questions. We just listen. And then once they’re done telling their story, we then start asking the questions that we need to know, and once that’s done, we start,” Burton said walking through the new space, which is nestled on the fifth floor of 112 Market Ave. in the Exchange District.

Founded in 2014, the non-profit helps youth aging out of care and families reunify, as well as others navigate Child and Family Services, the Residential Tenancies Branch and welfare programs. Between its half-dozen advocates, Zoongizi Ode has nearly 100 open files.

What started out with Burton cooking meals for those in need out of her kitchen at the grassroots level has grown to an organization with 11 staff members and a $582,000 annual budget.

Zoongizi Ode’s new space is the first of its own, after using an office space in the social enterprise Persons Community Solutions building on Main Street for five years.

“It makes it a lot easier. I can hire more people. I can train more people. We have more people who are going out and helping our families,” Burton said.

The former art studio has a kitchen (minus a stove — they’re still working on that), office spaces and a room dedicated for consultations and intake of new “family members.” It holds weekly meetings for youth, adults and elders, cooking classes and drum groups. The non-profit also doles out food hampers during the holiday season and backpacks with supplies at the beginning of the school year.

Burton has been a child in care and relied on welfare when her children were young, so she knows what families need when they’re at their lowest.

She sees food security as a pressing issue in the city. The cost of food, and its availability, is the No. 1 concern at the moment.

“I know what kind of struggle that is, and I want to try and alleviate that as much as possible,” she said.

Zoongizi Ode, which means “strong heart” in Anishinaabe, also partnered with Persons Community Solutions in 2021 to create the city’s community safety host program. The primarily Indigenous safety hosts are licensed security guards with non-violent crisis intervention training and are stationed in places such as libraries, ACCESS Centres and other locations in the inner city.

Though Zoongizi Ode, the safety hosts receive more than 130 hours of in-class training followed by three months of job shadowing.

nicole.buffie@winnipegfreepress.com