IHuman gets extreme makeover
Competitors work together to renovate site
The extreme makeover of the iHuman Youth Society’s new permanent location got off to a promisingly industrious, loud start Saturday morning as the bigwigs of several Edmonton construction companies gathered to do grunt work, removing floorboards in what used to be a restaurant supply warehouse.
Thanks to a major fundraising drive, iHuman has purchased land and is renovating a space at 9635 102A Ave., just north of its current location, a cramped, rented space at 10124 96th St. that used to be a peepshow shop.
Construction firms PCL, Clark Builders, Stuart Olson Dominion and Kellerdenali, normally competitors, have banded together to get the makeover done by the end of summer, if not sooner.
“I’m really excited for it because we’re really congested and crowded in iHuman now,” said Aimee Bellerose, 21, a youth mentor. Bellerose said the new space has a better vibe and history than the old one, which she helped clean out. “The peep-show space was really gross.”
iHuman is a non-profit Edmonton organization that empowers at-risk youth through arts programming. It has had to move nearly half a dozen times since it was founded in 1997. More than 60 youths come to iHuman every day to make use of the centre’s care and creativity programs.
The organization has helped some 500 youths since its inception, among them Bellerose, who was a drug addict and dropout when she showed up there at 17. Her mother was Deanna Bellerose, a woman who went missing in 2002 from Edmonton’s inner city; her body was found a decade later near Morinville.
“iHuman is my family. I don’t have anyone else,” said Bellerose, who has finished high school and kicked her drug habit.
Watching competing construction businesses work together for a good cause is impressive and humbling to Sandra Bromley, chairwoman of iHuman’s board of directors. “It’s a cliché, but it’s a dream come true,” Bromley said Saturday of both the cooperative spirit and promising space to come.
Project director Steven Csorba likened the makeover to an urban barn-raising for a good cause. “Everyone’s pitching in a little bit.”
“It’s a fantastic project,” said Andrew Ross, Clark Builders’ executive vice-president for northern Alberta. “To work with iHuman and take on their next evolution is awesome.”
Alberta’s construction boom and the short summer season will make the highspeed makeover a challenge, Ross said, but “if it was easy, no one would do it. There’s no reason why it can’t be done in five or six months.”
Stability matters so much to vulnerable youth, so the notion of not having to move again is thrilling. “Even moving two blocks can be disruptive,” Bromley said.
“The kids done come back for a while. They’ve had their trust broken so many times, it’s hard on them. And the moving is exhausting for staff, too.”
The two-storey space is a roomy 22,000 square feet and will have a rentable performing arts theatre, visual arts studio, indoor graffiti booth, facilities for young mothers, mental health clinics, shower and laundry area, and a large, cosy intake area with kitchen facilities. Most youths who use the facility consider it their home.
The new centre “has room for more youth, and it’s not as intimidating when you walk in the door,” Bellerose said.
The space will also have a street-level café called Love that will give youth work experience and raise funds through regular pop-up restaurants featuring top Edmonton chefs.