Sign up for the battlefordsNOW newsletter

Drop-in youth centre to open at Don Ross

May 19, 2016 | 5:13 PM

A safe place for youth to go and hang out is coming to the Battlefords. Renovations are being done to the Don Ross Centre to accommodate a drop-in youth centre.

“We’re looking to get something going over the summer,” Executive Director of Concern for Youth Nicole Fidelak said. “We are just going to start with drop-in basketball and hockey games at the Don Ross Centre and then really get everything going in the fall”

Concern for Youth is an outreach program that provides services to people ages five to 19 in the Battlefords.

“We have a van we drive around in and most of the youth around here know who we are,” Fidelak said. “They know they can wave us down and our staff will pull over and give them a sandwich or just hang out with them.”

The program also provides kids with one-on-one mentorship to help them build resumes and attend job interviews which will now be more convenient with a dedicated centre.

The only other youth program the Battlefords have is the Boys and Girls club but kids age out of it at roughly 13. According to Fidelak there aren’t many drop-in programs for 13 to 19-year-olds.

“We do get a lot of phone calls from community members voicing concern that there’s youth out and about and just wandering around and they are concerned for their safety,” Fidelak said. ”The youth is struggling with that sense of belonging and that need to have some place that is just safe. Where they can hang out and shoot some hoops.”

Fidelak and others working at Concern for Youth want to be positive role models for kids who otherwise wouldn’t have one. Many kids don’t get the attention from their parents because of work and other things. She added this drop-in centre will provide them with a place to hang out for free with their friends and guidance from adults they might need but can’t get elsewhere.

 

ghiggins@jpbg.ca

@realgreghiggins