Youth centre back open
New board looking for new sources
of funding to keep the doors open
Sarah Ladik
Northern News Services
Thursday, October 8, 2015
INUVIK
After closing the doors in August, the Inuvik Youth Centre will be back up and running after Thanksgiving.
Chair of the youth centre board Rory Voudrach agreed to stay on another term. He says the cornerstone of the youth centre is its drop-in program. - Sarah Ladik/NNSL photo
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The announcement was made at the centre's annual general meeting Sept. 30, where the board also announced they would be looking for alternate sources of funding, along with a new executive director.
"The youth centre has money in the bank," said board member and former executive director Ali McConnell. "Like other organizations in town, it's in a state of transition but we're working toward our goals."
Beyond just getting the doors open again, some of those goals include improvements to the building itself, hiring a new manager, and seeking out core funding. As it stands, the youth centre and organizations like it are often forced to run on program dollars, of which only a certain percentage can go toward things like utility bills and salaries. Board member Jimmy Ruttan (also a former executive director) said after the meeting that when a centre is getting $100,000 a year in programming funding, that's not such a large problem but when those sources of funding dry up or are only awarded year-to-year, it becomes problematic.
"We're trying to change who we're applying to for money," he said. "The worst they can say is, 'no.'"
McConnell agreed, saying that the advantage of looking for money for a youth centre is that there are so many different pathways to get it.
"A youth centre fulfills a lot of functions and it's easy to access funding," she said.
When the centre opens again it will be under the direction of one staff member, something Ruttan said was less than ideal, but necessary to keep the doors open and the momentum going.
"One staff member won't mean we're functioning at 100 per cent," he said. "We have to re-evaluate the entire structure."
Chair of the board Rory Voudrach said that despite the shutdown, the past year had been a productive one. Not only had there been successful programs running, such as the popular target-shooting sessions on Wednesdays and new sports equipment purchased, but the drop-in rates were consistently high.
"We've run a highly successful drop-in program," he said. "We've seen 30 kids a night, that's the cornerstone of the youth centre."
