Who We Are

Oyate Tipi is a registered charity and social enterprise which redistributes gently used furniture and housewares from the community to families and individuals experiencing furniture poverty. We are in partnership with The Furniture Bank Network.

Oyate Tipi is a nonprofit organization located in Winnipeg’s north end. 

In 1995, a group of crisis workers, providing outreach and follow-up services to women in transition, conceived the concept of Oyate Tipi. They observed that even when these women received support and secured new housing, they still lacked the essential comforts that transform a house into a home.

In 2000, the United Way helped secure a building that was generously donated by the Bank of Montreal. 

In 2003 Oyate Tipi was born in that old bank and began to serve women and children affected by family violence. Since then our mandate has grown to also assist people experiencing homelessness and youth aging out of care.

Oyate Tipi also provides a venue for generous people within Winnipeg to donate their gently used furniture and household items to be reused, refurbished, and recycled. In doing so, thousands of pounds of household goods are diverted from our landfills thus relieving the burden of our waste on Mother Earth.

Oyate Tipi acknowledges that we are gathered on ancestral lands, Treaty 1 territory, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene Peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.