Community hub to offer youth a space
Oakwood-Vaughan centre will have social, career and academic supports
Ask the youth in the OakwoodVaughan area whether they needed a space of their own in the community and they’ll tell you it’s simple. Well, actually the response of one on Friday was, well — “Duh.”
Forced to elaborate, they say mentors who look like them and offer free tutoring and mental health supports — in a community that is more racialized than the city average — as well as opportunities for jobs make a space like the For Youth Initiative (FYI) centre a nobrainer.
The space downstairs at 504 Oakwood Ave. in York Region opened its doors on Friday — virtually and for a max 20 staff and youth in-person for now — in the midst of an ongoing pandemic, as students head back to school with fewer in-person social supports and as gun violence continues to rise.
Down a set of stairs from the sidewalk, the space formerly used by another non-profit will serve youth aged 12 to 29 with homework help and one-onone tutoring as well as career and academic planning, justice counselling, anti-Black racism support in schools, settlement services, job preparation and more.
On Friday, the large, brightlylit site featured movable shared tables, desks surrounded by dividers for quieter studying or tutoring, multiple computers, a lounge area and a separate counselling room with armchairs. Residents and their kids filtered in and out, sampling pizza, picking up school supplies and registering for what will be virtual services to start.
The city-funded space will officially open with limited capacity due to COVID-19 in October. Opening in Oakwood-Vaughan is a return to the community for FYI, which previously had a space in the area and has been operating on Keele St. near Rogers Rd. and serving York South-Weston Youth for over 25 years.
“Having walked a lot of these paths we kind of end up being those caring adults, those mentors,” executive director Shaneeza Nazseer Ally told the Star before the red ribbon was cut with oversized scissors, as officials were surrounded by youth with slushies, cameras and ice cream cones.
Councillor Josh Matlow first proposed city staff explore a youth hub in the Vaughan Rd. area in 2019.
The neighbourhood has experienced increased gun violence, has “clusters” of lower-income residents, according to a city staff review of census data, and more racialized population than the city average.
A Oakwood Collegiate Institute student — from the school the new youth hub will primarily serve — was seriously injured in a shooting on a street outside the school in 2019, according to reports.
On Friday, Matlow praised the FYI team and city staff for pushing the project forward and securing the available space when it was stalled at council in the past over previous fights over funding and the number of new youth spaces.
“It’s because of them that we are here today,” Matlow said Friday of city staff standing in the crowd to witness the opening.
“They were the ones who said, ‘Let’s not start with the no. Let’s start with the yes and figure out the challenges.’ ”