Grande Prairie’s emergency shelter, formerly known as Rotary House, will now be known as Wapiti House as part of the organization’s decade of service in the region celebration.
Executive Director Kathy Lambert says in addition to the name on the building, they’ve also decided to recognize the lasting regional connection and community support the shelter benefits from by changing the legal name. Lambert says the association name change from the Wapiti Community Dorm Society to Wapiti Community Support Association encompasses the good and diverse work done over the last decade.
“The services have changed over the years, so it better reflects the supports we provide to the vulnerable populations… we have housing outreach teams, people supported in the community, so it was a great time for us to do a name change,” she says.
Lambert says they’ve been working on the idea for the last few months and were hoping to get more feedback from the community at large when it comes to the name change. However, she says the impact of COVID-19 made that next to impossible.
“So, we used the individuals who use the services, staff, and members of the board and came up with Wapiti Community Support Association.”
She says a decade of service for the region is a milestone for the community support agency and believes the next 10 years could offer up even more of a wide variety of programming and options for those who need it most.
“We’ve seen an increase in numbers in homelessness in the community, but one of the areas I think we are doing really well with is working with other organizations to better support the people we are serving,” she says.
“We’d like to see some expanded services, maybe like a sober transition house… as we see that as an area of need here.”
The rebranding on the building and all signage is expected to be completed before the end of the year.
