Erick Ambtman looks around the new location of the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers and can’t stop smiling.
“If I was new to Canada and I walked through those doors, I’d think these people must know what they’re doing,” says Ambtman, the centre’s executive director.
“We just feel like we finally have a space that reflects who we are, our professionalism,” he said. “A dream has been realized.”
About a hundred staff members have spent the last month moving into the new home at 10170 112th St., consolidating staff from a number of offices around the city.
Two locations, the 118th Avenue office and Eastwood School, will close in 2020 with language training being consolidated at the 82nd Street location.
The centre also operates a welcome centre in Millwoods, a west Edmonton location and the northeast hub in Clareview.
The renovations to the former Stantec head office cost the not-for-profit $2.5 million, a cost covered by private donations and tenant improvements.
Downtown staff now occupy three floors with a community kitchen, drop-in daycare, classrooms and a large area filled with computers for job searches.
“It’s remarkable; it’s phenomenal; we couldn’t be happier,” said Ambtman, who’s been at the helm since 2011.
You can see more from the new downtown location of EMCN this week on Our Edmonton on Sunday at 2 p.m. and Monday at 11 a.m. on CBC TV and live on the CBC GEM app.
The centre, which has been helping newcomers for more than 40 years, moved their headquarters downtown because that’s where its clients are, Ambtman said.
“We learned that half of all newcomers to Canada, in Edmonton, start in the centre of the city — in the core — and so we started looking for space, and we found this opportunity, and we just started planning and plotted on how to make it happen,” he said.
The centre is seeing more people come through the doors to take advantage of the spacious training rooms and modern technology, said Kwame Owusu-Ofori, employment program coordinator.
“I think the tools, equipment that we have here, the space, it’s very warm, it’s very welcoming, and even feels a bit professional,” Owusu-Ofori said.
“I feel very inspired.”
An official grand opening is planned for the spring.
