INUVIK
While there may be a new face at the Inuvik Youth Centre, the popular facility is looking to stay the course it's on, welcoming children and providing them with a safe place to relax.

"I want to enhance what they already have going," said Chloe Brogan, the new executive director at the centre. "It's already a safe, welcoming space and I just want to work with that."

If anything, she said she would be looking to increase the centre's visibility in the community and help connect the children and teenagers who go there with more opportunities.

"I haven't been here long, but already I can see there's all kinds of talent around," Brogan said. "I want to make sure we're taking advantage of all the cool things that happen in this town."

The youth centre currently has elders' nights, guitar lessons, Northern games sessions, target shooting, and movie nights, among many other things. The new executive director would like to see more cooking classes and maybe some knitting sessions added to the mix, after children have expressed interest in those fields.

Brogan grew up in the Okanagan area of British Columbia but went to school in Ontario. Recently back from teaching English as a second language in South Korea, she said she craved a homier, small-town feel.

"I wanted to explore parts of Canada that most people don't get to see," she said.

Brogan said although she has been involved in women's advocacy organizations since university, she didn't really consider herself a "kid-person" until she taught abroad. Still, when she was a student herself, she helped start a youth group.

"It was cool to see how, when given proper space and resources, kids can become these amazing leaders," she said. "In Korea, I guess I saw how the education was so restrictive, and it made me sensitive to how stressful that system can be for kids, and how we have to be conscientious of how our adult world impacts them."

Board member Melanie Adams said she is pleased to have a new face in the organization.

"We're just really excited to have Chloe with us," she told the News/North. "I'm looking forward to having a fresh perspective on things."

One new initiative Adams noted was the implementation of a youth council, where the centre asks the children and teenagers who go there for more formal feedback on what they would like to see.

Already, Adams said, they have changed some of the hours to stay open later on Fridays and Saturdays and are looking at what can be done to tailor programming to their needs.

Adams said that while the youth centre certainly plans to remain open, it's a lot of work to keep up and running, especially in the current economic climate.

"We're managing, thanks to support from a lot of groups," she said. "Times have been hard, all non-profits are in the same boat."

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