The following editorial appeared in the June 19 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
Change Now may have been around for more than 16 years, but the drop-in and resource centre gained greater public prominence in 2004 when it opened a 20-bed shelter in the basement of Norfolk United Church. Now, however, its public face and all the good it has done is fading. The worst thing is we don’t know why.
On Friday, the organization’s board of directors shut down the facility, turned away the young people who come there and told staff members they were out of a job.
But as of now, we still have no idea what happened and whether another shelter will open up to serve the city’s youth. While we understand well the hardships felt by the staff in this case, it is the at-risk and homeless youth who are most inconvenienced by this move — with nowhere to live and no support workers to help them through difficult times.
Board members, the ones who all questions are being directed to, are being difficult when it comes to getting answers on what happened. The official line from board co-president Li Peckan on Friday was: “The programs at Change Now were no longer able to provide for the needs of the young people. I truly regret that this had to happen.” The centre’s main funding agencies, Wellington County Social Services and the United Way, had nothing much in the way of an explanation either.
Whatever the explanation, the greatest loss here is to the kids. To their credit, they stepped up within hours of the centre being closed and held a rally in St. George’s Square and continued over the weekend to have community members sign a petition to have it reopened. They were organized and polite.
It was the same story in the fall, when the centre faced eviction if they didn’t cut down on the number of people frequenting the area outside the centre’s door. In response to that, many of the young people who use the shelter’s services pitched in to build flower beds and put in plants. And there was a noticeable change in the number of people hanging around outside. These young people do not take this centre for granted, nor should anyone else.
With no information on why the centre shut down, it is impossible to judge the appropriateness of the board’s actions. But we know this city cannot go on with no emergency shelter beds for youth. With the 20 beds now gone, there are only four available at Wyndham House, and they’re not always guaranteed to be available.
Whether these beds and the meals and health services provided by Change Now rematerialize in a new form, with 200 homeless youth in the city and between 30 and 35 youths using the drop-in services each day, they are needed. On that point there is no confusion.
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Having been away this past week due to the loss of my father, I was alarmed
when I returned to hear that staff of Change Now were notified by email that
they no longer had jobs, that the centre in Norfolk United Church was abruptly closed with no explanation given to the staff, youth who relied on the service or to the community at large. There is no doubt a reason for the closure of this service and maybe even a good one, but I think the staff, youth and community deserve to know the reason. If the reason is financial, then I think the city as a whole should look at how to resolve this. If it is social, I want to know that some group will seek to find a solution rather than leave these young people in the lurch.
Our youth are the future of our city, our country. If we show them that we support them without judgement, if we help them and guide them toward constructive life choices, if we provide them with good nutrition and shelter, then we foster stability and good physical and mental health amongst them. We also thereby protect our city from squatters such as those that have troubled people in the Onward Willow neighbourhood and from a drug culture which inevitably leads to crime. The dissolution of this service has a high personal and community cost. I think there is nothing more constructive we can do for our city than to protect and sustain our youth.
I would like to know that Council acknowledges the need for such a service in our community and will take it upon itself to become involved in seeking to restore a means to address the needs of the youth involved as soon as possible. CB~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I thankyou for finding the time to respond to me. I will forward this note from you on to others of the community who are showing interest. I also thank our City Council for standing up with the city residences and the youth and making sure something happens in a possitive manner for these children.
Again, I thankyou so very much. CH