A dozen members of a national youth volunteer service organization are looking for a place to call home.
Katimavik, the group that sends youth to communities across Canada for volunteer opportunities, has a local team that is actively seeking a short-term lease. Adim Hébert, communications and development manager for the Prairie office, explained that the group has been so well received that it’s getting an extension.
“We’ve been with St. Albert, Morinville and Legal for two years now. We were going to move this year but the response was huge against us doing that. We decided that we’re going to try to make it work and stay another year.”
He said that success has presented a problem: they don’t have a place to stay.
Hébert is asking the public for help in finding a four or five bedroom house that will be available for lease on Sept. 1. Currently based out of a ‘Katima-house’ in Legal, the group wants to set up a new home base in St. Albert.
“We’re centralizing a bit more in St. Albert itself, so you’ll see a lot more of a presence in that community.” He added that a house in Morinville or Legal would be suitable if he had no other options.
“I have to take what will work. There’s only so much room I have here to take chances. The sooner, the better. The sooner makes me sleep at night,” he laughed.
To sweeten the deal, he said that they are great tenants. According to Hébert, the hard-working volunteers are only home when they are sleeping. They maintain a busy schedule of working full-time at various non-profits in the community, plus they spend evenings and weekends doing workshops and other volunteer activities.
“A lot of landlords find us to be more organized than four random college kids. We’re not home that much.”
As a government-funded agency, it is also concerned with maintaining a professional, positive image and reputation. Katimavik has a strict code of behaviour and Hébert can also provide letters of reference. He added his own experience.
“I was going nowhere … a bartender. Then I joined the program and now I’m going back to school to get a degree. I got a full-time job. I’m bilingual. I went from being a small kid in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba that was slinging drinks to actually being passionate about what he does.”
Since 1977, Katimavik has enabled nearly 28,000 Canadians to be involved in more than 2,000 communities throughout the country. Approximately 1,000 youth participate with more than 700 community non-profit organizations each year.
For more information about the organization or to get involved, call the regional office out of Calgary at 403-693-3090 or visit www.katimavik-pra.org.
