The Southwest Youth Emergency Shelter has officially opened Dorie's House.

Yesterday morning the shelter was opened to youths aged 14-17 that are either at-risk of becoming homeless or are homeless.  

The groundbreaking process took place just over six months ago (on July 5th) and now with the shelter open (on January 15th), Bob Hale President of the Southwest YES Board reflects on the process.

"It's been a really exciting process and really moving, to be honest. It's just been so fantastic to see the response of the community to see that hundreds of people have contributed to Dorie's House," he told Swift Current Online. "There are hundreds of people that have a piece of that house in terms of the contribution towards that build. The way the community has responded to help young people in the southwest has been absolutely remarkable."

Hale didn't grow up in Swift Current or in southwest Saskatchewan but noted this was more than a dream come true for the shelter to be built.

"It feels better than a dream come true (for the shelter to be built and opened). When we imagined it, we had a vision in mind and it's even better than what we had imagined," Hale said Saturday morning.

The Southwest YES received a total of $181,464.64 donated by the community, $840,000 donated in construction costs and over 34,000 hours of donated labour to complete Dorie's House.

The President of the Board extended his thanks to everyone involved and said the southwest is a great community to be apart of.

"This project speaks very well to that, with how many people came together. It really is a remarkable community and remarkable area. We (the Southwest YES) are so grateful," he stated. "More importantly the young people who will be involved with this project, I know will be so grateful to the community for the support they're providing."

The non-profit organization applied a second time for government funding but were declined. If you would like to help the Southwest YES, you can email southwestyes@gmail.com