St. Albert’s Youth Community Centre will close its doors Dec. 31 unless it receives a $175,000 commitment from city council by the end of August, states a letter sent to council Monday.
St. Albert’s Youth Community Centre will close its doors Dec. 31 unless it receives a $175,000 commitment from city council by the end of August, states a letter sent to council Monday.
Signed by youth centre board chair Doug Campbell, the letter takes exception to a decision to cut the centre's funding.
The cut was recommended by the community services advisory board and unanimously approved by city council May 29. The decision will see no further Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) dollars provided to the youth centre past 2012.
“We have been told that Drop-In Centre and its programs does not meet FCSS program standards for prevention and in some cases does not meet the goals of city council in regards to asset development,” the letter states. “We take issue with this assessment as we believe that since 1997, the [youth centre] has been involved as a prevention-based, asset-building society working with youth in the community.”
The letter states the centre serves youth who don’t join mainstream activities in the community and might come from broken homes or blended families.
“Some of these youth … simply need a safe place to go when there are no other positive options,” it states.
The letter says the youth centre has had trouble finding other sources of funding because the advisory board gave short notice of its recommendation and also because the decision generated negative press that led to poor support from the annual Mayor’s Breakfast fundraiser.
“A total closure of the youth centre facility will send a negative message to youth who are using the centre,” it states.
Mayor Nolan Crouse said he was “taken aback by the decision,” adding he didn’t know the centre was providing services specifically to youth from special circumstances, such as broken homes.
“That being said, FCSS also does provide some of those services,” Crouse said. “I mean that doesn’t mean an individual or family would be comfortable with FCSS. So they transferred the ball back to council on its plan to shut down and we have to re-assess.”
Crouse said he has not heard from most of council, so doesn’t know how or even if it will take up the issues raised in the letter.
“It’s a wait-and-see right now,” Crouse said.
The letter also singles out Couns. Malcolm Parker and Roger Lemieux, stating the board had a “promising meeting” with both on July 4 but didn’t receive any feedback “or direction as promised.”
Lemieux said he and Parker met Thursday morning and decided Parker would get in touch with the board.
Lemieux, however, was unimpressed with the tone of the letter.
“The threat does not sit well with me because we have in-house programming through FCSS for youth, so it’s that we’re betraying youth,” Lemieux said.
Lemieux also said he’d reviewed a 2011 report on the youth centre and found, of 8,000 youth in the city, the centre claimed 800 were members, but only 60 were very active.
“You have to be careful with taxpayers’ money,” Lemieux said. “I believe youth will still have somewhere to go, so you have to run the numbers.”
