By Michael Gorman
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
Work continues in the efforts to open a shelter for homeless and at-risk youth in Yarmouth County.
Krista Dunn, project manager for Supportive Housing Youth Focus Team (SHYFT), said the group met about a month ago with Department of Community Services senior officials to discuss possible financial support.
Although the group received federal funding, which allowed them to purchase a house and make necessary upgrades as well as hire Dunn for one year, there is a need for operational funding from year to year. This is where the province comes in.
Dunn said it will take $289,000 to operate the facility, which would have six beds for young people between the ages of 14 and 21 in need of long-term housing as well as one emergency bed.
The money would allow them to hire a director, five full-time support workers from within the community as well as relief workers to ensure the facility is staffed around the clock. The money would also cover food, property taxes and everything else associated with running the operation.
To this point SHYFT has commitments from other organizations in the community for help in terms of relief staff and creating access to other services on site such as restorative justice, addictions and mental health and the Tri-County Women’s Centre.
What they don’t have yet is provincial funding.
Dunn said Department of Community Services officials tell them there is no new money this year for a program fitting their business proposal, but several senior members of the department staff are assigned to the project in an attempt to work something out. It’s also suggested they contact other departments such as health and education to talk about additional funding.
Dunn said it’s something they will do but hope to receive some guidance on the process.
“It’s not something that we are easily able to do by ourselves,” she said. “But it should be an interdepartmental partnership based on what we would be providing and how it would help out with the youth.”
Although the hope was to have the facility opened and operating at full capacity in September in time for the school year, Dunn said it would not be an ideal situation to do so without operational funding.
What they will focus on in the interim is a service available during the day that allows youth to access the various services while the SHYFT team gets a sense of what young people in the area are facing and what needs to be done to help them.
Dunn said several community agencies have already contacted them to identify young people who would be referred to SHYFT if it were open now.
“We definitely have been seeing youth that definitely are in need right
