Bathurst Youth Centre to close, sell property after 26 years
The centre will be listed for sale in March, with proceeds going to a new scholarship foundation
When Michelle Barclay thinks about the impact the Bathurst Youth Centre has had on her community, she says "significant is the word, but I feel like it's not strong enough."
After 26 years, the centre is closing its doors. The property will be sold to fund a new scholarship foundation.
Lise Ouellette, president of the Bathurst Youth Centre, said it was forced to suspend services during the pandemic.
"Since then it's been difficult to get back up and running for the youth [and] a lot of the programs and services that we offered before are now in schools," she said.
Ouellette said youth centre staff have tried for the last year to restart its programs, but those efforts have been unsuccessful.
In the last few years, the centre's focus has shifted to helping people who are homeless.
"In doing so we sort of lost our mandate to help the youth," said Ouellette.
Ouellette said the board has decided the centre should revert to its original mandate, and the property should be sold to create a foundation to provide scholarships to youth and to support community events.
Barclay, 35, has a long history with the centre. As a 12-year-old, she used services offered by the centre, then became the chair of the youth advisory board. Now she's a member of the board.
"I understood the need to have a place to get kids off the street, I understood that not everybody had a sport to go to after school or band practice," said Barclay of why she first got involved.
She said the centre started out as a space for youth to come together, with a canteen, ping pong tables and a stage.
It evolved over time to offer outreach services such as resumé writing and preparation for job interviews, as well as programs for youth at risk.
"They were also that umbrella organization for all kinds of different poverty reduction and community inclusion initiatives," said Barclay.
Since the announcement of the centre's closure, Barclay said they have received an outpouring of support.
Ouellette said her husband, Josh Ouellette, and a colleague opened the centre as two police officers who noticed the lack of activities available to youth.
At the time, the city didn't have spaces for youth or even a movie theatre, said Ouellette, who took over as president after her husband died.
The centre was designed with a mission to provide a space for activities, including dances, where youth could gather and collaborate. It also aimed to offer mental health and addictions services.
"Whatever the youth needed, the youth centre tried to provide the service for that," said Ouellette.
In 2010, board members noticed that many of the youth the centre served were homeless, either couch surfing or sleeping under bridges, said Ouellette.
That's when the board lobbied the government for assistance in opening a homeless shelter for the youth.
That shelter was run out of a separate building and still exists today.
She said, over the years, the centre gained a reputation for its contributions.
In 2003, the centre was the Canada House for the Canada Winter Games and welcomed former prime minister Jean Chrétien.
"There were a lot of ministers, performers over the years," said Ouellette.
In 2014, the centre received Canada's Volunteer Award in the category of social innovation by then-prime minister Stephen Harper.
Despite feeling sad about the closure, Barclay is feeling hopeful that selling the property will allow the board to better serve youth.
"I'm feeling [a sense of] hope and a sort of levity in redirecting to try and get back to the roots of supporting youth," she said.
The Bathurst Youth Centre will be listed for sale in March.
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With files from Information Morning Moncton