A community kept showing up.

The need was recognized long before the building.

Community efforts to create a safer option for young people in southwest Saskatchewan reach back to at least 1987. By 1998, proposals were being put forward to respond to youth who had nowhere safe to go.

In February 2013, representatives from local agencies and organizations began meeting again to bring the earlier work forward, understand what young people were experiencing and define what was still missing.

That spring, students at Swift Current Comprehensive High School launched Five Days for Change. Ten students spent five days and four nights living without their usual comforts to draw attention to youth homelessness. The campaign later presented nearly $13,000 to the Southwest Youth Emergency Shelter, making it one of the early public fundraising and awareness efforts behind the project.

• Early effortsLocal work around a dedicated youth shelter reaches back to 1987.
• 1998 proposalsFormal proposals helped carry the issue forward and document the need for a dedicated response.
• 2013 · Five Days for ChangeA student-led five-day awareness campaign raised nearly $13,000 for the Southwest Youth Emergency Shelter while bringing public attention to youth homelessness.
• Community scanPeople representing 25 organizations serving children and youth were interviewed during the renewed planning work.
• LearningThe committee reviewed earlier regional studies and visited youth shelter models in Regina and Medicine Hat.

Test the model, then widen the conversation.

The 2017 pilot put the concept into practice and helped demonstrate the need. When sustainable operating funding was not yet in place, Dorie’s House temporarily closed in October 2017, while the organization continued its advocacy, planning and partnership work.

In 2018, Southwest YES took part in a major conversation about homelessness in rural Canada. In February 2020, a stakeholder meeting with David French of A Way Home Canada helped frame youth homelessness more clearly as a health, housing and systems issue rather than only a question of shelter.

Build a treatment partnership during an unusually difficult year.

Discussions with the Saskatchewan Health Authority about opening a youth treatment facility began in November 2020. In 2021, Southwest YES moved through staffing, policy, facility and program work toward a six-bed residential treatment service and outpatient programming while also navigating COVID-19 public-health requirements.

Community support, a committed team and funding partners helped carry Dorie’s House through the transition into treatment during a difficult year.

The building was completed in 2016. Services kept evolving.

Dorie’s House brings emergency shelter and youth substance use treatment together in one place. The model depends on connection with young people, families, schools, health professionals, community organizations, funders, donors and the people who keep showing up when something needs to be built, fixed, funded or understood.