SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Engaging young people in productive and healthy activities is no small task in a territory where nearly 40 per cent of residents are younger than 25.

To meet the demand, youth centres have been cropping up in every region of the NWT, most recently in the community of Lutsel K'e, which opened its first youth centre in June. Plans to build youth centres or create specialized youth programs are in the works for the communities of Fort Resolution, Paulatuk, Fort McPherson and Tsiigehtchic, to name a few.

On Aug. 12, the GNWT Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) announced 29 youth centres across the territory will each receive $17,241 this year for operating costs. The money is part of the department's Youth Centre Initiative program, which provides a maximum of $25,000 a year to each recipient, based on certain conditions.

Ian Legaree, director of sport, recreation and youth for MACA, said the government implemented the program a couple of years ago to keep the centres up and running.

"They often are able to get special project funding, but they didn't have any money to pay the heat and the lights and the staff, so this is what the youth centres program is for," Legaree said.

"If communities can offer more positive opportunities for young people, they'll get a chance to develop and become better citizens. So it's really directly related to the kinds of things we'd like to see."

Though $17,000 a year may seem like a small amount of money, "it's huge" for the youth centres, said Fatima Ahmed, executive director of the Inuvik Youth Centre.

"It's not a matter of increasing that $17,000, it's a matter of knowing that I can get that $17,000 for the next two, three years - that, the government isn't doing," she said, adding that keeping a non-profit organization running is challenging especially when the government changes hands. "It's that lack of security in my funding that really, really undermines our work here at the youth centre."

Ahmed is the only full-time employee remaining at the centre. Two other staff members resigned this summer. Now, Ahmed is juggling the responsibilities of running youth programs and applying for grants to pay for them.

"If I'm constantly running after money ... I can't spend that time ensuring that the programs run better. The programs are really what are needed," she said. "That's time I can't invest into the organization to make sure the $17,000 we're getting is being put to good use."

Inuvik's 13-year-old centre, with its established programs and regular volunteers, is stable compared to what is offered to youth in other communities.

"There is no other alternative in many other places and I think at least we're giving youth an option that if they don't want to be involved in (drug and alcohol-related activities) then they don't have to be," Ahmed said.

"That lack of an option in communities where there is no youth centre, that can mean the difference between making and breaking somebody's future. I can't stress enough how important it is to have youth-friendly spaces."

In Fort McPherson, Ruby Koe looks after the youth and elders' programs through the hamlet office. She said she sees about 10 kids a day, most of them attracted to the space's computers and pool table.

"This is a place away from home for them," Koe said. "It's been used every day. Whether rain or shine, they're here."

Koe said one of her biggest roadblocks to running programs for children and teens, whether they're movie nights or traditional lessons in sewing or baking, is finding volunteers in the community to supervise.

"If I wanted to get them to do something, I have to have money for them to get them to do it," she said. "It's all based on dollars for me, for now anyways." The youth programs exist to keep young people busy and out of trouble, but Koe said all too often there are no second chances.

"The thing is that the minute they get into trouble, you know what? The community condemns these kids from ever trying to access any kind of fun projects," she said, adding that she sometimes allows those sentenced to community service to help out in the youth centre.

"We shouldn't be pushing aside those unwanted kids," she emphasized.

"They're already paying for the crime. At least don't make them look as though they're not a community member."

Since McPherson's youth and elders' programming began in 2007, Koe said she has noticed the community has grown quieter - in a good way.

"The crime rates and all that are starting to go down."

John Stuart, co-ordinator of Tuktoyaktuk's Jason Jacobson Youth Centre, said he's noticed a difference in the community since the centre opened in 1996, when he was a teenager.

"When I was a kid, there was a lot more crime going on. A lot more (break and enters), a lot more just general bad things that youth were doing because they had nothing else to do in the community," he said.

"Once I saw that the youth centre opened, it's calmed down. It's not totally gone, but it's calmed down quite a bit."

The key to successfully drawing in young people to the youth centre, Stuart said, is offering a wide variety of programs to keep everybody interested. To come up with new program ideas, Stuart often looks to the youth committee.

"Just recently I had a youth committee meeting and they wanted a drug and alcohol talk with a counsellor. They wanted to have that at least once a month where they can let out their feelings. So I thought that was pretty cool," he said, adding the plan is now in the works. But not every kid wants to come to the youth centre, and when they do, some of them don't respect the space.

"That's the challenging part - 'what should we do with this kid?' Because we don't want to kick him out of the youth centre; I mean the youth centre's there for the youth," Stuart said.

"So that's the challenging part, is trying to school these kids on this is there for them, (so) don't break it."