The province’s fourth integrated youth services (IYS) location opened its doors in Sturgeon Lake First Nation on Monday.
It will deliver supports to young people ages 12 to 25 and their caregivers.
The hub is located about 30 minutes northwest of Prince Albert and will operate under the name HOMEBASE. It will provide co-located access to mental health and addictions services; physical health services; peer supports; education, employment and training supports; cultural and traditional supports; and social and community supports.
Sturgeon Lake First Nation Chief Christine Longjohn was pleased to see the new development.
“It means that our youth have a safe place to come right now,” Longjohn said. “They were lacking their own space where they can have access to mental health, have access to even spiritual health, emotional and even physical health, like having a doctor on staff. We never had that before, so it’s really their own space.”
The HOMEBASE provincial team within the John Howard Society of Saskatchewan (JHSS) is leading the implementation of four hubs across the province with the provincial government providing $4.5 million in 2025-26 for development and operations.
Pamela Reimer, director of integrated youth services for HOMEBASE and the John Howard Society, said the JHSS was selected as the non-profit community partner to work with communities on the government processes.
“Our role is to help mitigate that and help really work with communities to ensure that our HOMEBASE youth hubs are meaningful to our communities or representative of our communities,” she explained. “(It) isn’t a one size fits all (thing), but how we make the model fit community.”
Reimer said the JHSS team identified that Sturgeon Lake needed different types of mental health reach and access.
“Although there are wonderful supports and providers already here in Sturgeon Lake First Nation, (having) someone who understood the youth (and) maybe felt less formal and easier to access was a big important piece,” Reimer said.
She added that the youth knew that they wanted mental health supports but were maybe not comfortable with the way services are typically provided.
“They really just wanted to find a different way to access that (and) find a different way to make it comfortable coming into a space like this where it’s a little less formal,” Reimer said.
She said that this can happen through having conversations in activity rooms or the Elder’s Room
The project was launched in collaboration with the Sturgeon Lake Health Centre, formerly home to a national research project, and Saskatchewan’s Access Open Minds site.
“That really focused on just mental health and working with youth and that’s where Integrated Youth Services expanded from,” Reimer explained. “They said, ‘this is a great model, but mental health isn’t the only thing youth need. They need as much as we can give them.’”
This includes helping youth with issues such as life skills, employment and training opportunities.
Sturgeon Lake First Nation Chief Christine Longjohn spoke during the ceremony at the official opening of the HOMEBASE at Sturgeon Lake First Nation on Monday.
A large group of community members and representatives gathered for the ribbon cutting at the HOMEBASE at Sturgeon Lake First Nation on Monday.
She explained that it is easier for youth to talk to someone their own age as opposed to someone who may not be in the same mindset.
“It’s made a big difference in how you want to access services and are trying to access services,” she said.
The project was designed with the help of a Youth Co-Design Team. Reimer said there is a Sturgeon Lake and provincial version. That team helps provide insight and feedback on the programs and how the hub is running.”
“(We’re) trying to ensure that when we say ‘for youth by youth’ we mean it,” Reimer said. “The youth are involved, they’re advocating, they’re taking the time to actually input their thoughts and their opinions to be involved.
Longjohn echoed that sentiment on the involvement of youth.
“The biggest thing is that it was designed by the youth and they’re still heavily involved in,” she said.
IYS is a national and international movement, aimed at reimagining how youth and their caregivers find and access the resources, services and supports they need.
In January 2024, the JHSS announced that four IYS hubs would open in Saskatchewan, operated by partner organizations. The first HOMEBASE hub in Humboldt opened its doors in September 2024, the second hub opened in Moose Jaw in November 2024, while the third hub opened in Regina in December 2024. Sturgeon Lake First Nation is the fourth community to launch service at a HOMEBASE hub.
Longjohn said that the project has been in the works for a long time. The Access program ran for five years and concentrated on mental health.
“They had created their own space. But the funding had sunset, so where it is our vision that this space will continue past five years, that it doesn’t just quit after five years so. That the funding will be there for them over a long period of time,” she said.
Sturgeon Lake First Nation Health Centre has been contracted to operate the hub. The vision of the site has had many people involved including the late Shirley Bighead, Clifford Ballantyne and others.
“Today is a day of celebration and it’s also a day that we remember the late Shirley Bighead and the work that she’s done for our community,” Longjohn said. “Her legacy continues because the work that she left behind for us to pick up. We have to do the hard work that she did and continue on with that vision of a healthy community.”
The event was emceed by Ballantyne. Speakers included Longjohn, Reimer, Mental Health and Addictions Minister Lori Carr and Youth Co-Design team member Abraham Felix. HOMEBASE SLFN Integrated Youth Services Manager Sandra Felix presented Star Blankets to Carr, Reimer, Longjohn, the family of Shirley Bighead and director of health Tanya Felix and Ballantyne. There was also an opening and closing prayer by Elder AJ Felix.
The event concluded with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
HOMEBASE services are available to any young person wishing to access them, regardless of where they live in Saskatchewan.
Additional information on HOMEBASE’s integrated youth services is available at homebasesask.ca and Integrated Youth Services.
Reimer said without youth they would not have been there on Monday. She said youth have embraced the idea at both the provincial and Sturgeon Lake level.
“We need those local youth saying, ‘here are our needs in our community and how we want to see those supports being provided,’” Reimer said. “They’re there to say, ‘this is what we need and how we need it.’”
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
