(Facebook/ Redcliff Youth Centre)

By Tiffany Goodwein

new expansion

Redcliff Youth Centre continuing to help youth during pandemic

Apr 15, 2020 | 6:24 PM

REDCLIFF, AB.- With youth out of school and extracurriculars, the Redcliff Youth Centre is doing their part to reach out to them during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The centre has been reaching out to their 298 members by hosting online mentorship meetings where they talk coping strategies, ways to stay active and keeping mental health a priority.

The centre says the COVID-19 crisis can be an especially vulnerable time for youth.

” They are facing a number of different concerns and issues right now, just from having responsibilities from having to continue their education studies and now that has shifted to also having to be at home. Their parents have either lost their jobs due to COVID-19 or they have parents working from home.” Janae Ulrich, youth wellness and program coordinator at the Redcliff Youth Centre said.

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” When youth have certain barriers, it tends to fall in the whole system. It’s not just the youth, it’s the entire family system that is kind of suffering or lacking certain resources,” she added.

Construction begins

The Redcliff Youth Centre, recieved the go-ahead to begin renovations to transform a portion of their building which used to house a daycare into more programming space.

“We’re knocking down walls and making it more of an open concept for our registered youth. We currently offer a dinner program and a homework program. We offer so many free educational and recreational programs for our youth and some weeks we see up to 40 kids a day,” Ulrich said.

The renovations were made possible, thanks to a number of grants.

“Just in the past year we were given $30,000 from the Home Depot foundation of Canada, and that was matched by the Government of Alberta, so in total we have about $60,000 in total renovations,” Ulrich said.

A group of volunteers at the Medicine Hat Home Depot have also been lending them a hand with the renovations and in turn saving them thousands in labour costs.

Other organizations have also stepped up to support the youth centre recently, including Pizza 73. The pizza chain on Kingsway is providing a free pizza to youth members and their families every day during the COVID-19 crisis.