The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Dozens of concerned residents are calling on Ottawa to reverse a funding freeze that slammed the doors shut at the Community Youth Resource Centre. The Flin Flon Aboriginal Friendship Centre, which had operated the youth centre, has launched a letter-writing and email campaign. 'We've had a tremendous response,' said executive director Shelly Craig. Craig is distributing a form letter and email she hopes residents will sign and send to John Duncan, federal minister of aboriginal affairs and northern development. Support sought It seeks Duncan's support for continued funding of youth initiatives through the Cultural Connections for Aboriginal Youth (CCAY) program. CCAY had been the largest funder of the youth centre and was expected to provide $156,000 in support this year. But Craig recently learned no funding would be forthcoming this year, which forced the closure of the youth centre on June 30. Within a few days of recently launching the letter and email campaign, Craig said at least 50 residents, roughly, had contacted Duncan. See 'Dire...' on pg. 6 Continued from pg. 1 'I'm definitely pleased with the support received from the community, which is getting behind us and working to move forward so we do have a project for youth in our community,' she said. Craig said the best-case scenario would see funding restored and the centre reopened at its long-time location in the lower level of the First United Lutheran Church on Second Avenue. That would hinge not only on the federal funding being reinstated, but also on the availability of rental space in the church basement. Even without CCAY, the Friendship Centre is receiving separate grants of some $20,000 for youth-related programming, though that represents only a small portion of the youth centre's expenses. The youth centre offered adolescents and teens a variety of structured activities, from lessons on nutrition and healthy dating to cultural events and garbage clean-ups. Over 400 youth accessed the centre nearly 9,000 times in the latest fiscal year. Three-quarters of them were of aboriginal descent. For Craig, the closure represents a loss for both youth and the local economy, as the centre employed five people. She would prefer not to spend too much time thinking about the alternatives if the centre cannot operate as it had previously. It would be difficult, Craig said, to duplicate all of the youth centre activities without a central location. 'How do you take a nucleus and now try to develop a spider web out of it?' she asked rhetorically. Copies of the form letter to Duncan are available at the Friendship Centre.
