Lord Roberts Community Centre

The Lord Roberts community is at the heart of the Fort Rouge neighbourhood in Winnipeg and represents over 5,000 community members; it is a growing socio-economically diverse neighbourhood. The Lord Roberts Community Centre (LRCC) is a vital part of the community, offering a broad range of recreational and leisure activities for persons of all ages and needs seven days a week. It is a place to meet your neighbours, explore new hobbies and interests and volunteer to give back to our community.

A full sized gym/hall is available to rent for a variety of sports, parties, and socials. The facility also has a wall-to-wall mirrored dance studio that is rented as a rehearsal space for dancers and others. The youth lounge in the basement is a fun space with pool tables, foosball and ping-pong, which is used daily by the free after-school program for kids between the ages of 6-12, Lighthouse, as well as holding other youth programming. One of LRCC’s most successful community programs is the South Osborne Bike Hub, a community-run bike shop unlike most others; rather than a fee-for-service model, the Bike Hub supervises and supports a do-it-yourself model funded by donations and grants.

In the winter, the club operates two outdoor ice rinks: a seasonal rink gets set up in the fields for sponge hockey, and the other paved rink with dressing rooms is available for recreational ice sports and some good old fashion ‘shinny’. From June to September, that rink transforms into a bustling community-gathering place on Wednesday nights with the South Osborne Farmers Market. LRCC also has a vibrant community garden, which is managed by the Sustainable South Osborne Community Coop.

The have turned a patch of weeds into productive gardens that bring community members together. The LRCC needs to upgrade the canteen and kitchen space to expand their programming and run a Kids Cooking Club and Kids operated Canteen. In order to run the club and canteen effectively, they would like to upgrade the cold storage and computer technology at the Centre. It would also be used for a commercial dishwasher, water bottle refill station, ice machine, grease trap replacement and various small kitchen appliances and kitchen wares to operate the cooking club (mixers, etc.).

“Ultimately, our goal is to foster a sense of community and we are taking that vision a step further by reconnecting people to their community and to each other.”