Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Nov 20/02) - An increasing number of youth participating in its programs has led the Rankin Inlet Drop-in Centre to expand its services.

Activities aimed at older youth began in a new location this week with a move to the community centre.

Jacintha Howard has been with the drop-in centre for the past seven years.

She says the move to the community centre will also allow drop-in centre programs to run later in the evenings.

"The activities at the arena will be for youth 12 years of age and up to young adults," says Howard.

"We'll run our programs for the older youth from after school until 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and stay open until 11 p.m. on weekend nights when there's no dance."

The regular drop-in centre is now the sole domain of younger kids and is open from 1 p.m. until 6 p.m.

The new site at the community centre will feature a pool table, computers and a ping pong table.

Howard says the program will expand as time goes on.

"We have about 30 youth taking advantage of our activities now in the evenings, and it's a great way for them to get together and socialize in a controlled environment.

"We're going to assess the situation at the arena and we'll be adding more activities for the older youth as we go along.

"We'll let the youth decide what they want to see added and work with their ideas."

The drop-in centre employs two full-time staff and two student workers.

Both the downtown centre for the younger kids and the new location at the community centre are supervised at all times.

Howard says most of the community's youth are happy about the move and the new opportunities it may bring.

She says having all the youth under one roof just wasn't manageable any more, and the split in venues will make the programs more beneficial to everyone.

"There were a few older kids who said they were going to miss the old drop-in centre, but most of them are happy about the move.

"Having better access to their music was a big point for a lot of them and so was having a place just for older kids."