Marking a pivotal moment in realizing Toba Centre’s vision for supporting young victims of abuse, Toba Centre’s much-anticipated new child advocacy centre officially opened its doors in September.
“We built this centre for the community, and the community has really rallied around us,” said Christy Dzikowicz, Executive Director at Toba Centre for Children & Youth. “This building gives us an opportunity to see these kids from investigation and right through – it’s changing their story.”
The new facility provides a calming and welcoming space meant to ease the difficult experience of reporting abuse as much as possible. All critical services that a family would work with are together under one roof, improving the navigation of interactions with child protection, medical, police and criminal justice.
Dzikowicz acknowledges the reality of child abuse is a difficult topic, but that amplification of this issue through the Winnipeg Jets and captain Adam Lowry as a Toba Centre ambassador has opened up the conversation and strengthened community support.
“This is an issue that is not talked about, and having abuse in the shadows is where abuse thrives,” said Dzikowicz. “But having members of our community like Adam Lowry and the Winnipeg Jets talk about this issue using their platform, we begin to celebrate the resilience and strength of what these kids go through.”
