{"id":507593,"date":"2026-03-01T15:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T15:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/507593\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T15:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T15:30:09","slug":"unique-pop-up-event-connects-vulnerable-northern-alberta-residents-with-social-agencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/507593\/","title":{"rendered":"Unique pop-up event connects vulnerable northern Alberta residents with social agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In a northern Alberta town, a person who’d been living in a shelter will start receiving their old age security benefit \u2014 and possibly a permanent place to live \u2014 thanks to a unique event that brought dozens of social service agencies together under one roof.<\/p>\n

About 150 people in Peace River, about 390 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, attended the first-of-its-kind Navigation Centre pop-up late last month.<\/p>\n

More than a third of them were there to access services ranging from addictions and mental health support to housing. Organizers said 26 agencies took part in the Jan. 22 event at the Sagitawa Friendship Centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really important for us to all come together because we see different needs within our agencies,\u201d said Tamara Brunham, a programmer for the Peace River Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) and one of the event organizers..<\/p>\n

FCSS, RCMP and other local groups piloted the project, which was inspired by the Hope Mission\u2019s permanent Navigation and Support Centre in Edmonton.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Under one roof\u2019<\/p>\n

Peace River, with a population of just over 7,200, is geographically divided by the river of the same name running though the centre of town.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have neighbourhoods on both sides of the river, so transportation can be an issue at times,\u201d Brunham said.<\/p>\n

Centralizing the services into one location during the pop-up was aimed to ease\u00a0 those transportation worries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Peace River runs through the centre of the town of Peace River, Alta., located about 390 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. (Google Maps )<\/p>\n

Brunham said organizers saw numerous success stories at the pop-up, including individual who had been living in a shelter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were able to access their old age security, which will help them now access housing,\u201d Brunham said. \u201cThat was a really big win for us to hear that people are accessing these services under one roof and it\u2019s helping change their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another highlight for Brunham was a small family that was \u201craving\u201d after accessing Alberta Supports<\/a>, mental health assistance and receiving vaccines \u201cinstead of driving all over the countryside to access these services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtney Geldart is an employment co-ordinator at Future Works, which helps people with barriers and disabilities find job opportunities. She had a booth at the pop-up and said the inaugural event was successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a wealth of referrals and were able to meet a lot of clients right where they were at,\u201d Geldart said.<\/p>\n

Peace River’s mayor expressed her support for the event when council discussed the pop-up at its Feb. 23 meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw services there I didn’t even know we had in Peace River. I was quite pleasantly surprised by it,\u201d Peace River Mayor Shelly Shannon said.<\/p>\n

Coun. Brandon Dous also attended the pop-up. During the meeting, he noted that the event was busy and he saw lines at various tables.<\/p>\n

Organizers hope to see another event take place later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-507593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}