The Vocational Training Centre and its secondhand store are preparing a move to a bigger space.
The organization that runs the program, the Association for Community Living Flin Flon Branch, has bought the building at 304 Green Street, the former location of Acklands Grainger. After a period of moving and renovation, the group plans to move their secondhand store, New to Me, to the former Acklands building, as well as expand inventory and services offered.
“We’re very excited about it,” said Samantha Thorimbert, the executive director for the association. The group has ties to the building, having had clients of the training centre work there for several years in the past.
“Our clients actually worked at Acklands for many, many years - they would come two afternoons a week, help roll gloves for Hudbay and clean up the shop,” she said.
The building is more than triple the size of the previous store space used by the centre on Channing Drive. Thorimbert said the store has seen a steep increase in use in the past few years, both for dropoffs and for shoppers, meaning the extra floor space should help - she proposed to the organization’s board that they buy it from Grainger-Canada, its owner, and it wasn’t long before a deal was struck.
“I kind of went out of my way to get the information myself, put forward a proposal to the board about purchasing it and they moved forward with it,” she said.
“Our other building has served us well over the years and they’ve added to it a few times, but now that we have the secondhand shop, now that we’ve got a debit machine and we’ve gotten our Facebook page, the amount of dropoffs and amount of sheer customers that are coming through the building has doubled in the last four years.”
The group plans to still use its Channing Drive building for training and programs, using the space where the store has been before to expand what services it offers. The new store will be operable year-round - which the current New to Me is not - and will be able to offer items for all seasons, instead of having to switch out seasonal inventory due to not having enough space.
“That’s a game changer for everyone,” said Thorimbert.
“It’s going to be great to not have to do that shuffle every year. We have a lot of individuals that go away for winter trips to Mexico and Cuba and things like that and they're constantly coming in looking for their children or themselves. We've always had to say, ‘We're so sorry, we just don't have the space to have it out in the winter time.’ Being able to do that will be an asset for everyone and we’re very excited that we’ll be near where the new pool is also.”
The centre holds vocational training and day programs for people who might otherwise have issues entering the workforce, programs that in the past had to share space with the store where some of the attendees worked. The new building means no more limits - something Thorimbert said she has heard nothing but positive feedback about.
“The community is really excited for us. They've known that we've outgrown our building, just from us having to say no to drop offs sometimes in the summertime, our busiest time for drop-offs. That's not going to be something that we'll ever have to do again, which is very positive for everyone,” she said.
“In the space we were in, there was absolutely no way we could do that. Into the future, we’re very much hoping that this will be an opportunity to be able to help cater to one-on-one programming, instead of just being strictly vocational with the secondhand shop.”
The new store is scheduled to open in late May, pending any delays or issues.
