Downtown Red Deer's Professional Building donated to Youth HQ to become the city's first Centre for Social Impact. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

By Alessia Proietti

Removing barriers

Downtown Red Deer’s Professional Building donated to Youth HQ for a non-profit sector hub

Mar 9, 2023 | 2:02 PM

Non-profit organization Youth HQ gathered with various Red Deerians downtown on Thursday to announce their acquisition of the Professional Building for a new community-oriented concept.

Located at 4808 50 St, the building will soon become the Centre for Social Impact, providing charities and non-profit organizations access to a centrally located building, offering affordable office, program, and meeting space.

“Our job is to create impact in people’s lives and across the community abroad. We do that in various ways. We help people understand their value, we help people understand that they’re cared for and they’re respected regardless of where they’re at or what challenge they happen to be in. We help them to understand that we’re there with them,” said Rob Lewis, Executive Director of Youth HQ.

READ: Youth HQ moves to new location to establish Centre For Social Impact

In addition to numerous city councillors and staff in attendance, representatives from non-profit organizations such as the United Way of Central Alberta, Ubuntu Mobilizing Central Alberta, Canadian Mental Health Association, Red Deer Native Friendship Society, and the Red Deer & District Community Foundation, among others, were at the announcement, with some having expressed interest in the building, according to Lewis.

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“It’s the organizations like Youth HQ with visions that started decades ago to build something better for our community,” said Councillor and Deputy Mayor Lawrence Lee, who added that the space brings a new energy to the downtown area.

Lewis described that two main groups would be benefitting from the project: the people they serve and the organizations that serve them.

“The most important benefit to them [clients] is ease in accessing services. Folks who access community services typically come from a place of need. They have limitations, barriers or challenges and by having organizations that serve them spread across the city, it’s an introduction to another challenge and sometimes it’s insurmountable and they don’t access the services they need,” he said. “This Centre for Social Impact will help alleviate that.”

He added that other services are within walking distance of the building, such as the Family Services of Central Alberta, McMan Youth, Family & Community Services Association, and Care for Newcomers, among others.

For the non-profit sector, Lewis says one of their responsibilities is to help each other and work collaboratively together. He described a situation in which an individual may come for the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, discovering they also need counselling services. Lewis says staff can walk with that client to the next organization offering those services down the hall. If the client also happens to be Indigenous, they can then be brought to a related organization in the building, sharing information on each other’s’ services.

“Collaboration is based on servitude. Where we as organizations serve one another to ensure that we are all thriving, we’re all doing well, all for the purpose of meeting the needs of the people in our community,” he said.

Lewis added, the move also brings increased efficiency for organizations by sharing resources like IT.

Rob Lewis, Executive Director of Youth HQ speaks to Red Deerians at downtown’s Professional Building on Thursday. (rdnewsNOw/Alessia Proietti)

The property was donated by Maclab Properties Group, a private real estate group in Edmonton. Lewis says a member of the community associated with the group shared the news roughly one year ago when the City vacated offices from the building, noting that McLab wished to donate the property to the non-profit sector.

He says the six-floor and roughly 50,000 sq. ft. building currently has some tenants such as a café, two commercial companies, and a few psychologist and psychiatrist offices, among others. Lewis says their leases are grandfathered in.

Three whole floors are available for leasing, with prices ranging from roughly $8.50-12.50 per sq. ft., depending on the organization’s capabilities and to cover operational costs, Lewis states. He says they plan to lease the spaces to either non-profit organizations or those working in “people serving” industries, with options to rent either small spaces or entire floors. He also notes a nearly 1,000 sq. ft. basement is available, with the intention for temporary rentals for those who are not tenants.

Lewis says Youth HQ administrative staff will move into the fourth floor while their current location on 4633 49 St will remain as a program activity space for Boys and Girls Club and the youth centre.

Niek Theelen spoke at the gathering about his time using Youth HQ’s services, beginning as a child going to Camp Alexo in the summer.

“As a teenager, they helped me develop my skills and give me confidence and allow me to learn things that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do. Being able to go through the programming and have those people that were mentors to me, and now mentor future generations, has made a big difference in my life,” he said.

Lewis states they are looking for sponsorships to title name the building and hopes donations, government grants and rent from current tenants will provide Youth HQ with a surplus for addressing unexpected building emergencies and to potentially create an internal grant program for the non-profits.

He says he hopes to move organizations into the building within the next two months, with an upcoming open house and ribbon cutting ceremony near the summer. Lewis encourages the community to spread the word.