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 Churchill MP Niki Ashton is getting behind efforts to reopen youth drop-in centres in Flin Flon and across Canada. She has posted on her YouTube channel a video in which young people call on the Harper government to reinstate the Cultural Connections for Aboriginal Youth (CCAY) funding program. 'This programming was key for young aboriginal people living in urban centres,' Ashton said in a press release. 'It gave them a place to go, healthy alternatives and a positive outlook.' CCAY funding ended last month, forcing Friendship Centres throughout the country to close or restrict their youth programming. In Flin Flon, this meant the end of the Community Youth Resource Centre, commonly called the Youth Centre, which had operated in the lower level of the Lutheran Church for a dozen years. The YouTube video, entitled 'Youth Call Out to Harper: Save CCAY,' includes interviews with youth and printed statements. At one point the screen reads: 'Prime Minister Harper: Doesn't it make sense to invest in young people today? Please re-open our youth centres. Invest in us. Bring back CCAY.' 'In this video, young people send a clear message as to why this funding is critical,' Ashton said. 'Take it from the young people themselves, if the Prime Minister believes investing in youth is key _ the government should bring back CCAY.' The video went online last Friday and as of Monday afternoon had 166 views. It coincides with a letter-writing and e-mail campaign, led by the Flin Flon Aboriginal Friendship Centre, that shares the goal of having the funding restored. Form letter The centre is distributing a form letter and e-mail it wants residents to sign and send to John Duncan, federal minister of aboriginal affairs and northern development. It seeks Duncan's support for continued funding of CCAY, which had been the largest funder of the Youth Centre. Shelly Craig, executive director of the Friendship Centre, said the best-case scenario would see funding restored and the Youth Centre reopened at its former location. 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. Over 400 young people accessed the Youth 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. It would be difficult, she said, to duplicate all of the youth centre activities without a central location. Copies of the form letter to Duncan are available at the Friendship Centre.
