King Thunderbird Centre Opens
- Boyle Street Staff
- Dec 12, 2025
- 8 min read
Updated: Dec 18, 2025
okimaw peyesew kamik's four-year journey, made possible with your support
On December 15, 2021, we announced the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation’s transformation $10 million gift and we launched the Build with Boyle campaign - our plan to transition from our old community centre to a new, purpose-built facility.
On December 15, 2025, four years later, okimaw peyesew kamik (King Thunderbird Centre) officially opened!
From the beginning, okimaw peyesew kamik was about more than walls and windows. It is a place shaped by the people it exists for. Designed through consultation with community members, elders, and knowledge keepers, this space reflects the beauty, worth, and dignity of those who walk through its doors. Many community members recognize their own ideas and experiences reflected to them. Others who inspired this vision are no longer with us, and we carry them with us as part of this story.
This building tells a different story about homelessness in our city. At a time when people experiencing homelessness are too often treated as trespassers or threats, okimaw peyesew kamik says something else entirely: you belong here. You deserve beauty, care, and a space created with intention. Hundreds of people from all walks of life came together to make that statement real.
Since opening, people have found connection, accessed supports, participated in ceremony, and begun new paths toward housing, health, and healing.
okimaw peyesew kamik is the foundation for what comes next. Those we serve have told us clearly that they do not want to be stuck in unhealthy cycles. Like all of us, they want good health, meaningful relationships, purpose, and what Cree teachings describe as miyo-pimâtisiwin - the good life.
This building shows what is possible when we stop defining people by their struggles and instead recognize their strength and potential. With the right supports and a community that believes in them, people can and do move toward the lives they want.
As we continue to grow into this space, we do so with gratitude and responsibility. The work ahead belongs to all of us, and we move forward together.
We could not and did not do this alone - it was the community that made okimaw peyesew kamik possible. All aspects of our work are about building strong, healthy relationships: the relationships between those we serve and our staff, between our volunteers and those we serve, between our staff and our supporters, between us and our neighbours, between our partners.
The Build with Boyle campaign is a story about relationships and reciprocity.
Before our former community centre flooded the sixth time, we already knew we needed a new building. The Coop, as it was called, had been home to many of our programs and services since 1996. And after almost 30 years there, for many people Boyle Street was the Coop, and the Coop was Boyle Street.
Many in our community hold fond memories of the Coop, and for good reason. For decades, it was a place where care was offered day after day in a space that held a great deal of history. Over time, however, accessibility challenges, aging infrastructure, and space constraints meant that staff were often working around the building rather than being supported by it. We knew our community - and the people who serve it - deserved a facility designed to support the work.
When we found a possible location - a 2.5-acre property only two blocks from the Coop - we approached the Oilers Entertainment Group. From the beginning, Boyle Street saw potential in this site - a place where services, care, and community could come together under one roof. The Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation recognized the importance of that vision and its role in strengthening downtown Edmonton. Their $10 million contribution changed the trajectory of Boyle Street and helped launch Build with Boyle.
We publicly announced the EOCF’s gift and launched the Build with Boyle campaign on December 15, 2021. Immediately after this announcement, Pat and Diana Priestner, long-term supporters of Boyle Street, donated to the campaign, providing another early boost to Build with Boyle.
Many other Edmontonians stepped up as well, giving what they could and walking alongside us.
On September 15, 2022, our development permit was approved by the City of Edmonton. Just weeks later, on November 1, 2022, we celebrated another exciting moment at Ford Hall, announcing new partners, including: Capital Power, Station Lands, The Brick, and The Stollery Charitable Foundation. With their support, we had met 75% of our fundraising goal without any government assistance.
At this same event we unveiled the name of the facility: okimaw peyesew kamik, which translates to King Thunderbird Centre. This nêhiyawêwin (Cree language) name was gifted to us in ceremony by Elder Cliff Cardinal.
“I had the painstaking task of humbling myself and providing humility to the spirit world to ask for a grandfather to guide this new home,” Elder Cardinal shared. “And during that time, one grandfather came - on the third round - one stepped up … the thunderbird came down and blessed us and took that initiative to guide us to protect this home for millennia to come.”
On November 11, 2022, okimaw peyesew kamik’s building permit was revoked by the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board (SDAB). Despite this setback, we committed to actively pursuing all avenues available to us in order to complete the project. Our supporters rallied around our staff, volunteers, and community and encouraged us that this was a project worth pursuing.
We re-applied and received our development permit from the City of Edmonton on March 21, 2023. On June 15, 2023, the SDAB approved okimaw peyesew kamik’s development permit.
During that same summer, we publicly announced our new Interdisciplinary Model of Care. This model brings staff from multiple disciplines together into one space to form an interdisciplinary team that works collaboratively with the person seeking care to meet that person’s goals.
The interdisciplinary model of care dens - askîy, nipîy, and asinîy - provide wraparound care (culture and ceremony, mental health and addiction supports, nursing, occupational therapy and social workers) to everyone they serve with a specialized team equipped with supports and services that match their needs.
But not everyone needs wraparound supports like those provided by our dens. The majority of those who receive services at okimaw peyesew kamik require timely support to meet their immediate needs. These include housing referrals, ID services, system navigation, hygiene products, and other supports – which they can find at itê ka-skinôh-tamâke (the place where people come for help). By streamlining our service offerings into a space designed to facilitate meeting those needs, individuals can receive the support they need and be on their way.
King Thunderbird Centre also contains two dedicated cultural rooms: iskotêw (main floor) and okimaw peyesew (second floor). Access to spiritual care through culture and ceremony is fundamental to the healing journey for the Indigenous communities served by this world-class facility. The design of okimaw peyesew kamik was guided by Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers in our community, reflective of those we serve, and honours Treaty Six Territory.
The interdisciplinary care dens operate alongside other services we offer at okimaw peyesew kamik. This integrated design speaks not only to how care is delivered, but to why this work matters.
Chief Willie Littlechild says that okimaw peyesew kamik is an act of reconciliation:
“When I see fellow Indigenous people suffering today, ravaged by hopelessness and addiction, I draw a straight line back to how we were treated by colonial systems. When people talk about intergenerational trauma, this is what they mean. We cannot change the past. The harms that were committed on Indigenous peoples in Canada are a part of our story now. But together we can create a brighter future.
The creation of Boyle Street Community Service’s new King Thunderbird Centre, or okimaw peyesew kamik in Cree, is an act of reconciliation that helps to create that brighter future.”
On November 3, 2023, we held a Mother Earth ceremony at okimaw peyesew kamik to mark the beginning of the facility’s construction. Chief Greg Desjarlais and members of our Elders’ Council, Elders Cliff Cardinal and Crystal Arcand, led us in the ceremony, which asks Mother Earth forgiveness for disturbing her. Together, everyone in attendance laid tobacco on the spot of our sweat lodge, where okimaw peyesew kamik was gifted its name.
We were joined by Enbridge, who announced their donation to the campaign at the Mother Earth ceremony.
There was a seismic Build with Boyle development on May 3, 2024. Alongside the federal government, we announced that we had received a $21 million contribution through the Government of Canada’s Green and Inclusive Building (GICB) program. The enhancements made possible through this grant will reduce okimaw peyesew kamik’s energy consumption by 99% and its greenhouse gas emissions by 709 tonnes annually. They also greatly increased the building’s accessibility.
This grant was the result of considerable work by both our staff and the federal government, and we came together to ensure okimaw peyesew kamik is an accessible, sustainable, and beautiful building for those we serve.
Alongside accessibility and dignity, sustainability is critical for Boyle Street. That’s why we announced the Build with Boyle endowment fund on August 21, 2024. The goal of this fund is to build an endowment for okimaw peyesew kamik, ensuring the longevity of the programs, services, and building operations at the building.
Our partners at EPCOR contributed matching funds, and thanks to public support, the endowment fund is strong. You can contribute to it here.
Construction continued at a furious pace. In April, 2025, we surpassed 50% completion at okimaw peyesew kamik.
Throughout the summer and autumn of 2025 construction was ongoing 20 hours a day. We are so grateful to our partners at Chandos Construction, Beljan Developments, Hiregood, and HSEA Architecture, whose hard work, attention to detail, and flexibility helped us get to where we are now - open and delivering services to Edmonton’s most vulnerable citizens.
Limited service delivery began on November 12, 2025. We gradually ramped up our operations as we acclimated to okimaw peyesew kamik. And while we continue to adapt to the needs of those we serve, we officially cut the ribbon on December 15, 2025. At this event eight major contributors – the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation, Capital Power, Pat and Diana Priestner, Station Lands, Enbridge, The Brick, The Stollery Charitable Foundation, and EPCOR – were given copies of artwork we commissioned to thank them for their support. Each piece highlights points of connection between the recipient, Boyle Street, and the community we share. The originals are displayed throughout okimaw peyesew kamik.
We also held an open house that over 700 Edmontonians attended, marking the beginning of this new chapter.
Build with Boyle was a success. okimaw peyesew kamik is a reality. And the work continues.
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