Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Herein
Lies A True Tale Of Irony":
Anon 9:26 AMYou just proved my
point of what a waste a "Youth Centre" would be.
Thanks
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The point above has been made twice in two days.
The town paid for a consultant study which determined from input received ,the community feels a youth centre is needed.
Did my commenters respond to the request for input?
Did they say no?
Despite all the expense and endeavour, consultant studies never get great input from the community.
In a town of twenty five thousand adults, input of between ninety and a hundred respondents is considered excellent and far more than the norm.
I anticipate, people in favour of a youth centre would be the ones providing input.
If those not in support do not respond, the favorables would be skewed as well as being hardly representative.
We have all been teen-agers. Nobody gets to be an adult without having been a teen-ager.We know many are at risk.
I am not personally convinced a youth centre monitored by adults, would draw in the ones the community thinks needs to be watched by adults.
I think we need to make a place where a kid in need of care and support would know to go. A coffee shop.With caring volunteers.
Not another recreation centre.
I think, if only to protect public property, we should seriously consider a skate board park. That is not an inexpensive project.
Youth needs are included in calculations for development charges.
There 's the source of funding.
It's not unlimited. My concern is, we choose our priorities wisely and make best use of the funds .
Let's not talk about what we don't want. The funds are or should be available and must be used.
Let's hear about what's most needed and would serve the greater purpose.
It takes a village to raise a child.
How did the consultants conduct the survey? Did they actively go out and solicit input or did they put up a web survey and wait for someone to respond.
ReplyDeleteSurveys can be skewed to tell you whatever you really want to have. It all depends on how you ask the questions.
No one asked me for my opinion on a youth centre.
I agree. We should not waste time arguing about exactly what should be provided for the youth, as Ballard refers to them. They should be including in whatever is done that the entire town can use rather than being a separate entity. If a place is active with all ages involved, they will be drawn in - not dragged. Computer access would be important but it also important to others. Some people speak of teens as if they fear them and want to stick them into a corner. We were all teens although some of us appear to remember that more than others.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anon 4:41 PM
ReplyDeleteInstead of trying to centralize youth services and separate them from the rest of the town into some new silo, why not shore up the facilities we have and make them inviting/accessible for youth.
Add a gym to a rec centre. Add a media/computer space to an adjacent business or loft space. Add a garage band/music space into an industrial unit.
Use the money being earmarked less for building something large that is permanent, but perhaps a couple small additions that allow services to grow/shrink, with the value being realized in the operating cost, not the bricks/mortar.
None of the proposed solutions have built in the element of change, which is such an important aspect of youth.
Building a bigger "hot-spot" is not going to equal more engagement. Times change, what the town should be building is flexibility and distributed services.
The skate park on the east side of town is busy with all ages of youth, right up to young adults. Every day, any time, except when it's wet. There is demand for another park, not the antiquated Flip Side that sets up on parking lots in town.A gym for recreation, not organized team club sports would be great to add to the SARC.
ReplyDeleteThe facilities at Elgin Green in Richmond Hill, have a good handle on youth, with outdoor pickup basketball, a huge outdoor skatepark, lots of random park areas and bike paths, the vision for community space was on the ball when that area was created. Not too late for SARC.