Province cuts funding for MHPL’s award-winning Community Coffee program

By medicinehatnews on March 17, 2026.

The final Community Coffee will take place Mar. 30 due to provincial funding being pulled.

The program has been in place for nearly five years, supporting job skill development, social connections, inclusion and intergenerational relationship building. It allowed residents to improve wellness and stabilize housing or financial needs.

However, the Ministry of Assisted Living and Social Services has defunded the award-winning library program.

“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,” said Medicine Hat Public Library social worker Shaina Hoadley.

This program, once recognized with the Minister’s Award for Municipal and Public Library Excellence, is one of the most public-facing aspects of the Library Ambassadors.

In the coming weeks and months, the library will share stories of the positive impact this program has made on the lives of Hatters 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.

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