The City of Regina has committed funding to the YWCA to help build a healing space and ceremonial lodge.

The building is part of the YWCA’s 54-million-dollar Center for Women and Families building project, which will begin in 2022.

The YWCA has applied to the federal government for up to $4 million in funding through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP). The City will pay $1.07 million if the application is approved, with the federal and provincial governments paying the rest.

YWCA CEO Melissa Coomber-Bendtsen said the space and lodge is something they feel is really important.

“YWCA Regina serves over 80% urban Indigenous women and their families. We partner with Indigenous organizations to bring cultural knowledge, ceremony, ways of knowing and practice to our organization. The Centre for Women and Families includes a healing and ceremony site which will be the first ceremony and year around sweat lodge available in our community,” she said., “The development of this space has been recognized as leading the way across the country and is a much-needed act of reconciliation in our City.”

She added that the healing and ceremony space will be stewarded by All Nations Hope Network.