Mitch Bourbonniere walks alongside community

For Mitch Bourbonniere [BSW/87, MSW/95], community work begins with a simple belief: no one should have to walk alone.

As a social worker, educator and community leader, Bourbonniere has spent decades supporting people navigating poverty, addiction, trauma, gang involvement, incarceration and homelessness. His work has taken many forms, from counselling and outreach to teaching, advocacy, ceremony and volunteer service. But at its centre is the same steady approach.

“It just feels like that’s the right way to do things,” Bourbonniere says. “We are all equal, and no one is less than or greater than, and walking beside people is good for everyone.”

Much of Bourbonniere’s work has unfolded at street level, through long-term relationships built over time. He has worked with the Downtown Community Safety Partnership, Mount Carmel Clinic, Whistling Wind Action Therapy and Counselling Service, Manitoba Blue Cross and communities including Fox Lake and Gillam. He also volunteers with community organizations across Winnipeg, including Okichidah Pimahtisiwin Kiskinawmatowin, known as OPK.

It is through OPK that many people have come to know the “Mitch Walk.”

The walk began in April 2020, when the pandemic shut down much of Winnipeg. For people living on the street, the sudden silence and closures created confusion and isolation.

“Suddenly, there’s no traffic. Suddenly, the coffee shops are closed. Even the shelters closed,” Bourbonniere says. “It became kind of a ghost town.”

So Bourbonniere and other volunteers filled wagons with food and supplies and went out to share information, offer support and remind people they had not been forgotten.

“We don’t approach anyone without offering something,” he says.

What began as an emergency response became a lasting act of presence. Twice a week, volunteers gather to prepare food and clothing, then walk along Main Street to meet people where they are. 

“In those six years, we have never, ever, ever once missed a walk on a Tuesday or Thursday morning,” Bourbonniere says. “We’ve walked on Christmas Day, on New Year’s Day. We’ve walked in minus 40, plus 40, thunderstorms. Nothing stops us.”

For Bourbonniere, the walk is not only about distributing supplies. It is about building community. Volunteers, students, community members and people with lived experience come together without hierarchy.

“Everybody sees the humanity,” he says. “We all love each other, we all love the people, and it’s glorious.”

That same commitment has shaped Bourbonniere’s work with young people. Over the years, he has supported youth and young adults facing barriers while helping them imagine and move toward different futures.

“It’s really the micro-moments of magic that can happen out there in the community and at street level,” he says. “I’ve been privy to people really turning their lives around, and it’s life-giving. It’s an honour and it’s a privilege to be part of that.”

“I’m extremely proud to be a University of Manitoba alumni,” he says. “I love the school. I love the campus. I love everything about UM.”

For Bourbonniere, receiving the Distinguished Alumni Award is especially meaningful because of that history.

“The best years of my life were spent at the University of Manitoba,” he says.

After decades of showing up for others, Bourbonniere continues to find meaning in the relationships built along the way.

“We have formed community when we go out and greet community,” he says. “It’s a great group of volunteers of community-minded people, but also relatives with lived experience that come back and want to give back.”