FAQ

If you have any further questions after reading this FAQ please do not hesitate to contact us!

1. What location are you planning for the youth centre?

We are still scouting locations at this time, but are looking for a location in the downtown core of Frankford.

2. What will there be to do at the youth centre? What activities or programs will you run?

Some of this will be determined by the facility we secure, but we imagine the youth centre being first a safe and fun place for youth to hang out. We hope to have table games and video games, perhaps some comfy couches. We hope to hold dances, or have a small stage where youth bands can put on concerts for their peers. We imagine having a computer lab and perhaps having tutors available to help with homework. There are many more ideas, but our main goals are for the centre to be safe, fun, and helpful for youth in the Frankford area.

3. What ages will this youth centre serve?

Our goal is to develop programs for ages 12-18, or grades 7-12.

4. What can I do to help?

We are so glad you asked! Once we get further along in the process we will need many volunteers to do a variety of tasks. Right now we have a working board in place with various sub-committees working on tasks like fundraising, advertising, finding a facility and so on. If you want to volunteer now or later, please talk to one of the board members or Frank Meiboom, our board chair, to find out more.

The most significant need we have right now is finances. We are looking for two types of financial gifts: one time and ongoing. We need startup money and/or donations to equip the youth centre and get it up and running. Once it is running, however, we will have ongoing expenses that will need to be covered. Our greatest need is for people to partner with us by pledging a monthly donation to go toward these ongoing expenses. Tax receipts are available for all donations.

5. Why are you asking us for money? Can’t you apply for grants of some kind?

We believe this will be best owned by our community when we put our money behind it, so it is our intention that most of the ongoing costs be funded by our community. It sounds like a lot, but if we all agree that this is something we need in our community we can make it happen. We plan to organize fundraisers and will look into grants as well, but our main focus at this time is gathering community support for the project.

6. Why $10,000/month? That seems like a lot.

Since we do not have an exact location yet, we have done our best to estimate costs for leasing a building and covering monthly expenses. This combined with our goal of hiring a full-time director for the youth centre brings the cost to where it is. We are working to be wise about what money we do spend, and will be able to create a more complete budget when we know more about actual costs.

7. What is this about hiring a director? Couldn’t you just use volunteers?

We certainly hope to have a strong team of volunteers to run the centre. We know from personal experience as volunteers, however, how precious time spent volunteering is. We believe that in order to give this youth centre its best chance to succeed we need to have somebody who is not just spending a few spare hours a week putting something together, but is devoted full-time to developing programming, training volunteers, running the youth centre and building relationships with youth in our community. We believe the youth centre needs this, and we believe our youth are worth it.

8. I see this is being put together by churches. Is this going to be a Christian youth club?

As Christians, we believe that following Jesus leads us straight into a call to love our neighbours. The longer we follow Jesus, hopefully the better we will get at doing this. Right now we see a need in our community for youth, and we want to put our love for our community, our neighbourhood and our neighbours into action by doing something about this need. We don’t want to create a new club for the kids in our churches. We’ve already got stuff going on for them. We want to create a place for all the youth in our community, Christian or not, to be loved, welcomed and cared for. We don’t want to preach at the youth in our community. This youth centre is meant to serve them, not us, and we want to create a place where we can meet the needs of youth in whatever ways we are able. One of the unique gifts the Christian church offers to our youth is the opportunity to explore ideas of spiritual need and ultimate reality. These are real questions our youth consider, and we want to create a place where those questions are welcome and discussion is encouraged. At all times the emphasis will be on discovery and all perspectives are welcome, and any spiritual guidance we offer will only be one part of the many various opportunities and activities at the youth centre. Because we come from a Christian perspective on issues of spirituality and ultimate reality, our plan is for this centre to be founded on Christian principles such as love, equality, justice and mercy, and we expect all staff and volunteers to agree to our statement of faith so that we are consistent in our approach and counsel.