Submitted by the Haida Gwaii Youth Society-Last month the Haida Gwaii Youth Society was on the verge of closing the doors of the north and south end teen centres because our money ran out. Thanks to an $11,000 donation from the Northern Savings Credit Union, we will be able to stay open
Kathleen Gableman, manager of community re-investment for the credit union, recently met with north and south end youth coordinators to learn how the teen centres interact in the islands communities and what programs they will be organizing.
With the donation from the credit union, the youth society will be able to continue to organize local community programming where island youth life skills can be developed and keep the doors of the teen centres open. Events focusing on trades-related topics, service organizations (fire and ambulance), sports events and dances are some of the programs planned for spring.
This donation also means that the Youth Society can access funding approved by Gwaii Trust for 2007, subject to receipt of matching funds. The combined funding will allow the centres to stay open for a further three to four months and implement some of the planned programming.
The Gwaii Trust has in the past two years supported the Haida Gwaii Youth Society with full funding that we gratefully acknowledge.
If anyone has any ideas about funding possibilities or would like to work with or for our youth, please contact Art Lew at Community Futures.