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The Nipawin Oasis Community Center Cooperative Ltd. was established in 1992. It has fourteen years of successful experience at developing and supporting a variety of programs designed to re-integrate marginalized groups. The Oasis is a non-profit organization that exists by virtue of and within the parameters of the Cooperatives Act 1989. It is also a Registered Charity. The Oasis is proud to have been in a leadership role during their period of operation and have spearheaded Collective Kitchens, Youth Kitchens, Community Gardens, and a support group for individuals with long-term mental illness in this area.
The Oasis was developed to address an identified need for community-based programs for disadvantaged groups in the Nipawin area. Elsewhere in Saskatchewan these resources were being supplied through several types of funded agencies, each serving its’ own target group (e.g. Food Banks, Drop-in Centers, Sheltered Workshops). In Nipawin the numbers in the identified groups were lower, so it was envisioned that sharing a facility would be cost effective and plausible. If the Nipawin Oasis could borrow the caption of the latest mural “Nipawin on the move”, to ‘Oasis on the Move’, this, to me, would describe our programming from 2005 to the present. During the past two years, the Nipawin Oasis Community Centre is literally ‘bursting at the seams’, with new programs. Since the purchase of the old Gringrich “ building, the Oasis Community Centre has expanded the number of programs offered from four to 13 programs, with plans in place to add three more in the very near future, all targeted towards disadvantaged individuals and families. The Oasis Community Centre is also involved in many fundraisers such as mail runs, food booth at the Nipawin Fair and “Good Neighbor Days”. In February of 2006, the Nipawin Community Centre has rented the former VHV building, which will be used for a bike program (repairing, selling, renting and loaning bikes). For more information contact Garry Schenstead, the Oasis Centre Treasurer, at 862-5750, by email at nipoasis1@sasktel.net, or at the Oasis Center at : Box 3146 Nipawin, SK S0E 1E0 |
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© 2010 Wapiti Valley CAP