Many Paths to Financial Empowerment

SEED Winnipeg helps Manitobans build stability, confidence, and opportunity

For someone in financial crisis, progress can begin with something as basic as a birth certificate or a tax return. For someone else, it may mean turning a skill into a business or finding a path back to a profession. At SEED Winnipeg (Supporting Employment & Economic Development), those different starting points are connected by one goal: helping people build greater financial security, confidence, and choice.

Carinna D’Abramo Rosales, co-executive director of SEED Winnipeg, describes their work as a continuum, with support shaped around what each participant needs to move forward.

“Our mission is to build strong communities and provide hope and opportunities for every person living in Manitoba through financial empowerment programs and services.”

SEED’s services include help obtaining identification, filing taxes, navigating public systems, managing money, and starting or expanding a business. Through Recognition Counts, a loan program delivered in partnership with Assiniboine Credit Union, internationally trained newcomers can also access financial coaching and flexible loans while working toward accreditation in Manitoba. The goal is not a single definition of success, but practical support that helps people build stability over time.

That support is increasingly in demand. D’Abramo Rosales says the need to cover basic living and monthly expenses has intensified since the pandemic, while SEED’s access-to-benefits services are routinely filled to capacity. In 2024-25, SEED and partner organizations served 16,252 participants, secured $45.6 million in income benefits, and helped people obtain 2,800 pieces of identification needed to access services and benefits.

To reach more people, SEED works through more than 120 community supports and partnerships, including a train-the-trainer model that equips other organizations to provide similar services. “We can’t be the only shop in town doing this, and we don’t want to be,” D’Abramo Rosales says.

“We want to ensure that everyone is getting the services and supports that they need.”

In Spring 2026, Winnipeg Foundation awarded SEED a Multi-Year Grant of $100,000 annually for four years. The unrestricted flexible funding gives the organization room to respond to changing community needs, strengthen training and partnerships, adapt programs, and continue its policy and systems change work. For an organization facing both growing demand and complex barriers, that flexibility supports the long-term work behind immediate service delivery.

D’Abramo Rosales has seen what that long view can make possible. Early in her career at SEED, she worked with a single father receiving Employment and Income Assistance who wanted to start a landscaping business. Together, they developed a practical business plan, created a bookkeeping system, tracked cash flow, and supported the business as his customer base grew. Eventually, he no longer needed income assistance. More than 10 years later, he called SEED again because the business was still operating and he wanted guidance on hiring staff properly.

For D’Abramo Rosales, stories like his reinforce why the work continues even when the need feels overwhelming. SEED measures outcomes such as confidence and hope for the future, and continually adapts programs based on participant feedback. “Many of us who work here just have this inherent belief that a more just economy is the right thing, and it is possible,” she says. That belief, paired with dependable support, helps SEED keep opening more paths toward financial empowerment.