Boyle Street relocation to Work Nicer space seen as mutually beneficial
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It may seem odd for a business-oriented coworking space to offer its facilities to a social services agency in need of a new home, but for Work Nicer founder Alex Putici, it was completely aligned with his mission.
"No one succeeds alone. We believe that if you help enough other people get what they want, you will get what you want," Putici told Taproot. "Work Nicer is a community that exists outside of the four walls of the buildings that we occupy, so it doesn't just apply to our members, it applies to the community at large."
Boyle Street Community Services vacated its community centre at 10116 105 Avenue NW at the end of September after determining it wasn't financially viable to continue to lease the space from the Oilers Entertainment Group. Its new location at 10010 107A Avenue NW, called okimaw peyesew kamik (King Thunderbird Centre), is not yet ready, so the agency found temporary quarters for its services at Bissell East, CO*LAB, two trailers outside the new site, and Work Nicer's outpost in the Mercer Warehouse.
The Calgary-based Work Nicer took over the old Startup Edmonton space on the third floor of the Mercer in 2022. It operated for a few months, then closed for renovations earlier this year, sending members to the company's first Edmonton outpost, Beaver House. So the space was there when Boyle Street found itself in need.
"We had to do what we could to step up to bat and at least explore what that looked like," Putici said. Work Nicer paused renovations and moved to the second floor to make room for Boyle Street's Indigenous cultural support programs.
Offering those services in a somewhat commercial space will have its challenges, but this is also an opportunity to break down stereotypes about Boyle Street's clientele, said Lina Meadows, senior manager of adult programs.
"I think by integrating our community members into this building, it breaks down that wall of, 'Who are these people?'" she said. "And (it) really allows people who, more often than not, probably don't have a lot of intimate exposure to the clients that we would work with at Boyle Street, and really helps work towards building those healthier communities where we don't see 'us versus them' as much. We just see it as Bob, the guy who goes upstairs to access services at Boyle Street and is having a hard time."
