WELLINGTON COUNTY – An Upper Grand District School Board trustee is working with local municipalities, the County of Wellington, the school board and the Groves Hub to create an online resource hub for area youth.
“Not a lot of youth living in Northern Wellington like Mapleton, Wellington North and Minto have access to resources,” explained Robin Ross, UGDSB trustee for North Wellington.
“If you're a kid that really likes tech, or you really like a sport, or you like art or drama, music, we don't have camps near here for you to do that in summer. So, parents have to have enough money and enough time to drive their kids to Guelph, Waterloo, Owen Sound, Stratford to have that type of experience for their kids.”
Ross noted she wants to connect the school board with anybody she knows that has resources and have conversations on what resources everyone has; how they’re used; can they be used differently and in new ways.
“This collaboration will be called the North Wellington hub group and we’ll get together as a group, and talk about what we have, so our youth can have more opportunities here,” said Ross.
“Parents of students are not the only stakeholders in the education system. Community groups, minor sports, municipalities and Wellington County all have goals and resources that could work together.”
Ross is working with organizations such as The Grove–Palmerston to get mental health resources more readily available to youth as these kinds of resources are hard to find.
“The Grove kind of works for kids from ages 12 to 20, or youth from ages 12 to 26. So, what can we do for kids that are not 12 years old? And what can we do for people who aren't kids and aren't in school? What other links do we have?” she said.
She explained that she’s been sending letters to Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Learning Disabilities Association, Wellington County, different organizations at the Special Education Advisory Council at Upper Grand.
Local municipalities have been asking the provincial government for funding for better internet infrastructure. Meanwhile, county libraries have the best internet connection throughout Northern Wellington, Ross noted.
So, she’s also been in conversations with county libraries to get internet resources more available to area youth who need it for their studies and schooling.
Northern Wellington hub group will not be a physical space but rather an online presence such as a website where area youth and parents can go on and find local resources they can use.
“So, this is not about creating new programming. It's not about competing with anybody else. It's not trying to take anything from anything we've already got. It's about having everything in one place.”
As of right now, however, Ross explained that the collaboration is at its early stages. The group will only meet up twice this year and set for more meetings the following year.
The first meeting will be on Mar. 29 at Wellington Heights in Mount Forest at 7 p.m.
