Click on any numbered step in Winnipeg’s PATH Pilot Timeline to view documentation from each step along their journey.
A Central PATH: Winnipeg Pilot Site
Rooted in story, trust, and relationship, the PATH Process is a community-driven way to better support our people, especially those navigating housing challenges.
The PATH Process is currently being piloted in four locations across Canada.
Winnipeg is the Central pilot site, walking this path on Treaty One Territory, the home and traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Dakota, Dene, and Oji-Cree Peoples, and on the National homeland of the Red River Métis.
While PATH is a national, Indigenous-led framework, each community brings it to life in its own way. In Winnipeg, the PATH Process is guided by local knowledge through Winnipeg’s PATH Working Group, led by End Homelessness Winnipeg (EHW).
EHW serves as the Community Entity (CE) for Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy and led the co-creation of Winnipeg’s Coordinated Access system by March 31, 2022. Winnipeg’s system is called Naatamooskakowin, a Cree word meaning “a place to come to for help, shelter, or resources.”
Their Coordinated Access vision:
“Coordinated Access creates lasting solutions with our community to provide a seamless and rapid exit from the experience of homelessness through system collaboration and coordination that is person-centered, anti-oppressive, trauma-informed, strengths-based, and grounded in the principles of harm reduction.”
This pilot is about more than testing a process. It is about reclaiming how we listen, support, and walk alongside one another in ways that reflect our people, our stories, our strengths, and our communities.
Why It Matters
Having patience is so important. People want to share their stories.
Mainstream tools (e.g., SPDAT) often ask the wrong questions in ways that feel disconnected from real housing needs.
The PATH Process was co-created by Indigenous communities coast-to-coast-to-coast, alongside the National Indigenous Homelessness Council, in response to a national call for change. Through the PATH Process, we:
- Honour stories and strengths
- Build relationships, not reports
- Make housing decisions with heart, not just data
Winnipeg Pathfinder
Denise Everett
Community-Based Pathfinder, Winnipeg
📧 deverett@endhomelessnesswinnipeg.ca
Denise Everett, a member of Peguis First Nation, has lived in Winnipeg’s North End for the past 25 years. With over 15 years of experience in Community Development and Education, Denise has worked as a direct service worker and holds a degree from the Inner-City Social Work Program at the University of Manitoba.
She actively engages with her community, volunteers her time, and serves on various boards and committees that support Indigenous individuals at the grassroots level. Denise is also a proud mother, foster mother, and grandmother.
🔗 Visit: endhomelessnesswinnipeg.ca/coordinated-access
Local Support Partners
- Lived/Living Experience voices to lead the work
- Community-based PATH Working Group members
- End Homelessness Winnipeg
- ACRE Consulting, Development/Technical Consultant
- Canadian Mental Health Association
- Eagle Urban Transition Centre
- Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre Inc.
- Mount Carmel Clinic
- Native Clan Organization
- North End Women’s Centre
- Shawenim Abinoojii
- Siloam Mission
- Sunshine House
- The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs
- The Link
- The Salvation Army
- West Central Women’s Resource Centre
- Winnipeg Community Advisory Board