The following article appeared in the June 21 edition of the KW Record:
Community meetings are underway to start up a new youth centre to replace Change Now, which closed suddenly last Friday.
Yesterday afternoon, five city councillors met with United Way of Guelph and Wellington executive director Morris Twist, a representative from Wellington County Social Services and former Change Now employees and youth.
Emerging from yesterday’s meeting, which was closed to the public, Coun. Maggie Laidlaw said plans were underway to form a steering committee for a new centre expected to replace Change Now in September.
No one has spoken publicly about the reasons for the closure of the centre, which had 20 beds and between 13 to 16 youth in the overnight program.
Coun. Ian Findlay said he couldn’t say whether city councillors were privy to the information, but did say it involved personal information that would be “immoral and illegal” to share.
Many people involved seem to have resigned themselves to the idea of looking forward, trying to replace the centre by September and provide for the youth in the meantime.
Laidlaw said they will be looking to hire a worker to work from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. five days a week to direct youth to community services while the new centre is being organized.While she wasn’t certain where this worker would be located, she said Chalmers Community Services Centre was being considered.
On Tuesday, local community agencies also met to discuss how they would work together to fill the increased need for food, shelter and health services in the community.
Twist said the group wanted the public to know that Change Now’s closure had nothing to do with the youth that used the shelter and food program.
“The youth were not at fault in this in any shape or form,” said Twist.
While he, too, would not reveal the reason for the shelter’s sudden closure, he did say the organization had been experiencing difficulty for some time, particularly over the last year.
The United Way was a major contributor to the shelter, giving about $150,000 annually.
ChangeNow and the Norfolk United Church, which housed the organization, did have some disagreements, but Ivor Wright, chair of the church’s council, said they did not kick the shelter out.
Last September, Norfolk administrators gave their tenants of three years an ultimatum:shape up or get out. A large number of youth were hanging out in front of the centre, prompting concerns about vandalism, alcohol and drug use.
Staff began enforcing new rules limiting the number of youth allowed outside on the premises at any given time.