By : Françoise Stanton (Translation : Guy Côté)

A youth centre is neither a shelter nor a community centre, but rather a safe place exclusively dedicated to minors under 17 years of age. A permanent place of their own, which they shape in their own way, where they can socialize, chill, play games, dance, paint, cook, etc., accompanied by staff ready to listen to them, advise them when needed, without judgment.

However, experience and testimonies demonstrate that such a privileged space, between home and school, can make a huge difference to the psychological well-being of adolescents, which is unfortunately increasingly fragile, as evidenced by the fact that three-quarters of mental disorders begin before the age of 18 and half before the age of 14, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information and the World Health Organization (WHO).

A priority project

The concept isn’t new. There are currently some 250 youth centres across Quebec, but none like it has yet been established here. This situation is lamented by Nathalia Guerrero Velez, Executive Director of Action communautaire Lac-Brome, who has been working with teenagers in the region for several years and is now determined to make it her priority project.

“We too often forget,” she confides, “that young people in medium-sized towns, outside major urban centers, have limited access to psychological and social work resources, hence the even greater importance of vigilance, prevention, and upstream intervention—all missions that youth centers have undertaken to promote the autonomy and balance of the adolescents who frequent them.”

The needs of young people

Caroline Hadlock, a youth worker at Action Communautaire, says that isolation, low self-esteem, anxiety, and bullying are among the top problems she sees in the young people she works with, particularly at the Friday night dances she organizes at the Community Centre for 9 to 14-year-olds.

“Our dances are becoming increasingly popular, and a real bond of trust is developing between us. But now, the time has come to improve our services for teens in VLB and the surrounding area and finally give them a place of their own.”

Informations

https://www.facebook.com/ActionCommunautaireLacBrome/. Nathalia 450-830-1016