Redcliff Youth Centre seeking a provincial exemption to reopen

Redcliff Youth Centre

The Redcliff Youth Centre is seeking a provincial exemption to reopen safely and provide essential programs to its youth again.
Janae Ulrich, RYC’s executive director, said the exemption is not currently available to organizations like RYC at this moment.
“But it’s something that we’re hoping can be available in providing essential services to (the) youth in our community and surrounding area,” said Ulrich.
“We feel as though our programs are essential because we provide youth with the social emotional growth and development that they are kind of needing. We’ve seen an increase in our services. We’ve switched to an online capacity—which has been successful—but not as successful as our in-house programming and that’s to be expected. When kids were doing school from home, our programs were a little more successful just considering kids were already logged on and it was a way for us to connect and engage.”
RYC just completed its renovations recently and Ulrich does not see any reason why the facility can’t reintegrate services with respect to the public health measures and social distancing and factoring in youth stay in their cohorts.
“Our renovations have allowed us to create an additional space separate from the space we currently have,” she said.
“Which means we can host two to three additional cohorts that all have their own entry and exit ways, washroom facilities (and) just to keep those developmental demographics of youths separated. We’ve constructed a place for youth that is safe, constructive and an environment that feels like home, where they’ve got access to additional supports that they might be needing?especially for kids that are at risk.”
Exemption letters of support can be written to MLA Michaela Glasgo’s constituent office and Premier Jason Kenney.

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