NANAIMO — Federal grant money will help BGC Central Vancouver Island (BGCCVI) expand its current free programming to reach more young people in need.
Over $177,000 was formally awarded by Nanaimo City Council during their Monday, Sept. 25 regular council meeting, with the money going towards their Nanaimo South Youth Hub program.
Executive director Karen Love said they run a number of programs out of their Fifth St. building, as well as satellite versions at the Nanaimo Aquatic Centre (NAC), which will directly benefit from the grant.
“This will allow us to have more staffing and we’ll actually be able to run more nights per week than we currently run. It’s really an expansion of what we’re doing at Fifth St, and then we’re doing that expansion at the NAC, which we already run our Youth Lounge at.”
Currently, the Youth Lounge is for youth 13 and older, but Love said they are hoping to eventually include kids aged 11-12 as well.
BGCCVI programs for those 11 and over include connecting them with adult mentors, as well as providing exercise and mental health support, such as their Generation Q program, which provides a safe space for LGBTQ2SIA+ youth to gather.
Love said the goal of all of these free programs is to get kids out of the house and engage with others their own age.
“Out of all of those programs, we’re really just trying to enhance the number of nights that we offer our programs, as well as running additional programs at the NAC… making sure that our youth are really well supported.”
Around 800 young people participated in their programs last year, which are mainly in Nanaimo, but have also begun to expand to Parksville.
She said the program expansions will happen “as soon as the ink is dry on the cheque”, with their youth programs starting back up again in mid-October.
“We’re really excited and really thankful to be chosen to get funding. By getting this funding, it really helps us to get some more staff and run some more programs, and ultimately serve some more kids who really, really need our support.”
The grant money was provided through the federal Public Safety Canada’s Building Safer Communities Fund.
In July 2022, the City of Nanaimo accepted $1.8 million from the fund to implement plans to address gun and gang violence where the Nanaimo Youth Resilience Strategy was created and endorsed the following year.
The distribution of this grant money is in line with this strategy.
Other local organizations which benefited from this grant include School District 68 ($500,000) for their Uy’ Sqwalawun (Good Heart & Mind) project, the Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society ($177,386) for their Connections program, and Snuneymuxw First Nation ($300,000) for a space for youth resiliency and Snawaylth.
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