Hay River (Sep 29/03) - Four months ago, 23-year-old Kevin Wallington became co-ordinator of the Hay River Community Youth Centre.

His father, Pastor Glen Wallington of the Hay River Baptist Church, was one of the centre's founders.

Kevin Wallington is the co-ordinator of the Hay River Community Youth Centre. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

News/North: How long has the Hay River Community Youth Centre been open?

Kevin Wallington: At least eight years.... My dad, Glen Wallington, had a vision to really get something going in the community for the youth, so it was born out of that and it's kind of grown to what it is now.

N/N: How long have you been involved?

KW: I was involved right from the very start. I was involved in the high school at that time with student council and other community initiatives and the drug and alcohol agency here in town, as well.

N/N: What were you doing before you became co-ordinator?

KW: I was down in Calgary going to Mount Royal College for communications and public relations. I was getting my degree. I actually got involved with a church there working with youth groups. I was doing pastoring, as well.

N/N: What made you decide to come back to Hay River and work at the youth centre?

KW: It's always something I've really believed in, the centre here, and really felt that it's an important part of this community. To have an opportunity to be a part of developing that was something I was really excited about.

N/N: What is the overall importance of a youth centre?

KW: For a lot of youth it's an opportunity to feel a sense of belonging, a social group that they can rely on and that's going to be there for them. They can go there and they know their friends are going to be there and they're going to have someone to hang out with and chat with.

N/N: How would you describe the purpose of the centre?

KW: Just be there as a support for the kids as they go through high school.... You find a lot of kids, if they don't connect through sports or some of the other community initiatives, they have nothing to do. This really offers them a place for them to shoot pool and hang with each other, and even just to shoot basketball in the back, or skateboard or bike.

N/N: As the new co-ordinator, do you have any changes or new programs in mind?

KW: Absolutely.... With the winter coming, we can really focus on some development programs inside, after school programs even if it is giving the kids a hand with homework or teaching them some research methods. Just helping the kids out as the winter progresses and start to do some internal programs, music programs, art programs.

N/N: What sort of programs are there now?

KW: We had different things going on throughout the summer, mostly outdoor things. We'd organize street hockey games and basketball in the back. We have our X Games coming up here. But mostly in the centre, I've spent the last four months just getting to know the kids and finding out what they're interested in.

N/N: What are the ages the centre serves?

KW: It's between 13 and 18. I find that there are so many younger kids, even younger than 13, who are occasionally hanging out on the property. If the building is empty or it's early in the day, I'll let them come in for a few minutes to shoot pool and that, but the age difference gets to be too great when you have kids who are nine to 18. It just doesn't work. Mostly 13 to 18 is our group. We usually have a solid core of about 25-30 kids who will drop in at night, and on the weekends you can even double that. The most I've counted lately is 35 kids at one time. If they're all in the building at once, it's pretty busy in there.

N/N: At the recent meeting about crime in Hay River, there was some discussion about youth crime. Is the youth centre one of the ways to respond to that concern?

KW: Definitely. One of the purposes of the centre is to give the kids a place to be. I find that you have your different groups that are cruising around or whatever. But for the most part, the kids who get into trouble are the ones that have nothing to do. They're just out and about and it's usually on a whim. I've had a chance to talk with quite a few of them who have been recently or in the past charged with a break and enter. Basically, they were just bored, hanging around, wandering around kind of thing and just on a whim. I think that it's definitely one of the ways, as we develop programs and as we make it available for the youth to hang out, that we'll hopefully see less and less of that kind of activity.

N/N: Do you think youth are sometimes unfairly blamed for crime?

KW : I think that has a tendency to happen.... You have a few people who might be stirring up a lot of trouble. There is often a tendency for young people to get blamed, and not just the youth centre, but in general. I find that everywhere. I was reading a quote from Socrates from how many years back talking about the exact same conditions that they had with their youth that we have now. I just sort of chuckled. Nothing is new under the sun.

N/N: Do you think youth centres need more community and government support?

KW: I think the community support has been unbelievable.... That's what has kept it running. It would be nice to see more federal and territorial funding for the centre. That's definitely something we're pursuing and taking a look at right now. I think that would allow us to embark on some larger projects.

N/N: What sort of satisfaction do you get from working with youth?

KW: I love it. It's a challenging environment because you've got a whole different realm of age groups and experiences and backgrounds that they're coming from. So it's a challenge for me to connect with them all, but it really is a great job.

N/N: What is your biggest challenge?

KW: The whole community relations thing is going to be one of my biggest challenges.... How do you connect with the most people? How do you find out what their concerns are and what they'd like to see happen. So over the winter I can embark on just reconnecting with key people.