If not for the pandemic and the provincial stay-at-home order, a trio of new Wellington County youth hubs for mental health and social services would be up and running, says Cyndy Moffat Forsyth, director of the Integrated Youth Services Network Wellington & Guelph (IYSN).
“We’re ready to go as soon as the restrictions are lifted. We’ll be in there in seconds, ready to accept youth,” she said of facilities set up in Palmerston, Erin and Fergus. “What the youth are telling us, and this is no different than the adults, is ‘we’re tired of the lockdown.’
“Youth are really wanting to get out of their homes, get back to school and having a space to hang out is critically important to them.”
As it stands, the network is providing a variety of online programs, including cooking, healthy relationships, college and university preparation, gender expression and more.
The Fergus facility was expected to be opened earlier this year but is now on track for a mid-June launch, Moffat Forsyth said, explaining struggles with construction materials availability and initial confusion about whether construction was allowed to continue under lockdown restrictions led to delays.
However, the BHive – a 2,000 sq. ft. space for youth run by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Centre Wellington (BBBSCW), located across the hall from the new IYSN hub – was fully functioning ahead of the stay-at-home order.
“Our focus as an organization has always been helping youth and starting the BHive was a very intentional part of that commitment,” said BBBSCW executive director Kristen Drexler in a news release. “And knowing how much impact our programs have already made, we have been excited to invite and introduce the IYSN to the Centre Wellington community because we know it means more good things for youth.”
In many ways, the two facilities inside the Skyline Community Hub, part of the former Zellers/Target store on Tower Street South, will operate as one.
“We’re not competing with Big Brothers Big Sisters, we’re collaborating,” said Moffat Forsyth.
“The space in Fergus will be seamless to use,” she added, noting that if BBBS wants to use IYSN’s recreational space, it can and if IYSN wants to use BBBS’s kitchen, it can do that too.
Combined, the two spaces will provide 8,000 sq. ft. for youth-centred activities and programs.
As for the IYSN’s Palmerston hub, being spearheaded by East Wellington Community Services, it was completed in March.
“It’s sitting there ready, furnished, all ready to go,” Moffat Forsyth said.
The Erin hub opened last fall and is currently offering one-to-one services as needed, but is generally providing online services for the time being.
Additional locations are planned for Guelph, with one at the university expected to open this fall, the executive director noted.
“We will be the only integrated youth services network across Canada, there’s 41 of them, that has partnered with a university for service delivery,” she said, noting several other networks involve universities behind the scenes. “We were interested in partnering with the university so that university students could go to any one of our six sites and community youth could go to the university site as well.
“We wanted to mix them so that we could reach more youth.”
A large number of university students come from within 80 km of the university, meaning many likely come from other areas covered by the network. When school’s out, those students can then receive continued services at one of the county hubs.
“The idea is that youth get seamless care, they don’t have to tell their story over and over and over again,” Moffat Forsyth said.
In addition, the Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Wellington’s planned Centre for Children's Developmental & Mental Health Services on Woolwich Street – the site of the former McDonald's restaurant – is set to include 8,000 square feet on the main floor dedicated to a IYSN hub.
A 6,000 square-foot addition is also planned for the Guelph YMCA/YWCA facility on Woodland Glen Drive in order to house a IYSN site there.
Those sites are expected to be operational by late 2022 or early 2023.
A fourth Guelph location, at Shelldale Family Gateway on Shelldale Crescent, has been operating in a similar fashion to the IYSN for the past 25 years.
