Council supports hiring youth centre staff
Clearview council’s Oct. 1 meeting began with eight people taking their turn at the microphone to make heartfelt testimonials as to the impact of the Clearview Youth Centre.
They told council members that the adolescent community is plagued with drugs and alcohol abuse, mental health issues, suicide, and boredom and that the youth centre provides a safe place for youth, free of drugs and bullying.
The youth centre’s current coordinator Michael Fish, who has been an outspoken advocate for youth and has shared his personal story of sobriety, said, “There is a crisis in our community… drug use has skyrocketed and we need to do something about it.”
Ellen Gerrior, the sister of The Door manager Jen Gerrior, said she is thankful that Deputy Mayor Barry Burton spearheaded the creation of youth centre after she put him on the spot at a 2014 election meeting. She said as a result, youth are more engaged with their community, a feeling she did not have as a teenager.
“Everybody everywhere needs a youth centre and I thank you for putting one here in Clearview because we need it,” she said.
Later in the agenda, councillors considered an item deferred from the Sept. 17 meeting to decide the fate of the youth centre, located in Stayner. Options presented by the youth services committee, which manages the youth centre, included closing the centre, maintaining current programming or hiring an employee to expand on current programming.
“To ensure long lasting success for youth programming, permanent staff needs to report directly to the Clearview Parks, Recreation, and Culture Department. This alignment will enable an environment of shared resources, strategies and facilities.
It will also provide collaboration for partnerships already developed and enhance opportunities for future ones. Most importantly, it will provide stable management and consistency of operations to support programs for all Clearview youth,” states a report from the committee.
Council went with a plan to hire township employees to facilitate after-school programs and add summer camps, which is to be considered during budget deliberations at the beginning of the next council term.
In its first two years the centre has been staffed by volunteers and last year, a coordinator was hired as a contract employee. The committee reported the youth centre has 123 members.
At the end of this year, the seed money initially set aside to get the youth centre open will have run out. It was noted that the committee has raised an additional $106,790, matching the $100,000 in seed money, and has entered into some successful partnerships with other community organizations that serve youth – The Door, Ontario E3 Early ON and the Canadian Mental Health Association.
Councillor Thom Paterson said he moved to defer the proposal last month in order to do a bit more research. He said when faced with two options to hire, one for after-school programs and one that also includes daycamps, the latter made sense because it provides a revenue source ($60,000 increased revenue from summer program registrations. This is calculated with 50 youth at $150 per child each week over eight weeks), reducing the operating budget. The cost of adding employees, not factoring in any daycamp revenue, is $123,920 – one permanent full time ($49,704) and part-time position ($25,500) and three summer student positions for nine weeks ($16,600) with annual increase of 1.8 per cent each year plus benefits.
Trina Berlo photo: Tony Fry (from right) looks on as Michael Campbell and Haley Floyd tell council about their positive experiences at the Clearview Youth Centre.
