Special to the Globe and Mail

While it’s still early days, an Indigenous-led hub is coming to Hamilton’s east end and will offer health care, housing support and culturally specific community resources for generations to come.

“We needed this building yesterday,” says Samantha Steven, an Ojibwa from Serpent River First Nation and a member of the board of directors for Niwasa Kendaaswin Teg, a non-profit Indigenous organization that provides a variety of community services. “It is hard to find your roots. My culture was taken from my mom, so coming here as a child was a stepping stone for me to find my roots, and I flourished.”

Niwasa Kendaaswin Teg, along with De dwa da dehs nye>s Aboriginal Health Centre and Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services, will each have buildings in the new Hamilton hub. Currently, the organizations are located in different neighbourhoods around the city, though the forthcoming centre will put them in one place to allow for greater service accessibility. To help fund the new multi-use centre, the federal government invested $13-million into it as part of its Green and Inclusive Community Buildings Program.

The new hub, called the Biindigen Well-Being Centre, is currently in the listening and learning phase. While the property is expected to be operational by 2028, no conceptual designs have been approved yet. The project’s site is currently home to an old elementary school that is set for demolition by the end of the year. Once the hub is finished construction, its trio of accessible buildings – separate structures that will share outdoor communal space and programming – will offer local Indigenous residents and visitors a welcoming place of hope, healing and outreach.

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