Hope blooms
Whitney Pier Youth Club announces new partnership
Relationship with social enterprise could mean extra opportunities for Cape Breton youth.
The Whitney Pier Youth Club has forged a relationship with a Halifax-based youthfocused social enterprise that could result in additional opportunities for Cape Breton young people.
Representatives of Halifaxbased Hope Blooms, which gained a national profile when it was featured on the CBC program Dragons’ Den, were in Sydney River Friday to meet with some of their peers from the Whitney Pier Youth Club and to announce a new partnership that will see the Hope Blooms line of salad dressings sold at the store with a dollar form each bottle going to the Whitney Pier club.
Hope Blooms sees at-risk youth learn how to grow organic food and turn their produce into products for sale with all profits going back into their community and a scholarship fund that supports post-secondary education for members.
While every dollar is important to a not-for-profit society, club executive director Chester Borden said the benefits to the young people attending the recently expanded club go beyond the direct monetary
impact. The hope is to set up a similar social enterprise in Cape Breton.
“We’ve got to start getting into some other means of fundraising,” Borden said. “If you generate some social enterprise, especially if it comes from themselves, being a nonprofit organization we struggle for funding constantly, I think it’s good for these youth to learn about social entrepreneurship, working skills, budgeting, all those life skills.”
Borden noted the youth from Hope Blooms first visited Whitney Pier a few months ago and his club’s members are looking to pay their own visit to their new friends.
“They had a great rapport with our older youth,” Borden said.
Last year the club served more than 13,000 meals and 22,000 snacks to its members. Gardening and a focus on healthier eating are general trends currently, Borden noted.
“I think it’s time for these guys to start growing their own stuff,” he said.
As far as what initiatives the club will take on with any funds raised as a result of the relationship with Hope Blooms, Borden said that will ultimately be up to the youth themselves. For example, its ongoing bottle drive helps to pay for the costs of excursions such as laser tag.
“You’re teaching these guys life skills … we just put up an $800,000 building, now it’s time to maintain it,” Borden said. “I have the privilege of running the club right now but it’s their club.”
Jessie Jollymore, founder and executive director of Hope Blooms, said when the opportunity arose to expand outside of the Halifax area she wanted to ensure it was in Cape Breton.
“We want to be able to engage with the youth in Cape Breton,” she said. “We are from an inner city in Halifax and we know the challenges that many people face living in a marginalized community and we felt that in Whitney Pier there were youth there that also are in a high needs community.”