WELLINGTON COUNTY – Minto and Mapleton are partnering on a centre to meet the needs of youth in their community.
The towns are partnering with the Integrated Youth Services Network (IYSN) to create spaces that are focused on overall youth wellness for ages 12 to 26. This will be one of seven IYSN centres in Guelph and Wellington County.
Jessica Dettman, Minto Mental Health Coordinator, explained that youth will only need to share their story and struggles once and can access services at any of the seven centres with a file on them in their system.
“Offering youth these services and this opportunity to promote wellness and mental health overall will benefit our community as a whole,” Dettman said.
Minto CAO Derrick Thomson, who also sits on the IYSN cabinet board, expressed his excitement about this project and agreed with Dettman that youth wellness services are more critical than ever during the pandemic.
“I can’t think of a better time when we want to be able to provide these types of services to our youth community,” Thomson said to council. “I think the partnership with the Integrated Youth Services Network is fantastic.”
The centre will be across the street from Norwell District Secondary School in Palmerston, where many youth from both towns attend. The towns are splitting the cost of renting the space and any renovations that need to take place. IYSN is focused on providing the programming.
Both councils approved up to $20,000 each but they also had just received a $10,000 grant from Centre Wellington Community Foundation to go towards this initiative.
Councillor Jean Anderson was the lone opposition voice to this project. She said the intentions of the project were good but had concerns about privacy and stigma of using the services. She said she felt students might be reluctant to go if it’s located across the street from the high school where others may see them accessing the services.
Thomson explained that they are engaging with youth in the community to help design the space. In his experience working with youth to design spaces, Thomson said this helps them take ownership and removes the stigma of such spaces.
Dettman explained that the site isn’t only for mental health services, it could be a place for recreation, study and other supports that young people need.
“These spaces are going to have anywhere from individual counselling to resume building to peer support programs to overall wellness programs,” Dettman said, noting that local youth will help shape the centre. “Our space in Minto may look different than Guelph because our youth may want something different.”
Anderson still had reservations about the location and voted against the project. However, the rest of council voted in favour at Tuesday evening’s council meeting.
Mapleton council unanimously voted in favour of the project at their Tuesday evening meeting.
