Posted on 23 March 2026 by Chris Brown.
An award-winning library program that has been a launchpad for community members seeking to improve their wellness, or stabilize their housing or financial needs, and build employment skills is coming to an end on March 30.
For nearly five years, Community Coffee has supported job skill development, social connections, inclusion, and intergenerational relationship building. It also provided nominal financial support to the Library Ambassadors who host Community Coffee each Monday and Friday morning.
The program is being defunded by the provincial government’s Ministry of Assisted Living and Social Services.
In 2023, Community Coffee was recognized with the Minister’s Award for Municipal and Public Library Excellence. In a letter at the time, then minister Ric McIver commended the library on its “innovative efforts to help marginalized individuals earn income, build social connections, and more fully participate in community life.”
Community Coffee and Friends of MHPL book sales are the most public-facing ways the Library Ambassadors have served the library. They have also worked at other large library events such Comic Con and occasionally assisted with basic building care such as snow shoveling.
“All told, since the summer of 2021 the program has supported more than 300 of our valued community members to build strength and confidence in navigating their next steps with dignity, self-determination, and compassion,” says MHPL social worker Shaina Hoadley.
In the coming weeks and months, the library will be sharing stories of the positive impact this program has made on the lives of so many since its inception.
Hoadley says she and Krystal Eirich, MHPL’s other social worker, are already looking at ways to rebuild the program with local community partners, potentially through sponsorships and donations.
Follow the library on social media: @mhpubliclibrary