A new youth centre is another project being worked on by Nak’azdli Band.
A meeting held on Nov. 19 brought together 20 people from across the community including the Nak’azdli Youth Council members, Fireweed Collective Society, community members, Nak’azdli band members, band employees and representatives from the District of Fort St. James. Youth between 15 and 18 years old were in attendance.
The meeting was held to bring together members of the community to discuss options and ideas for a new youth centre which would better serve the needs of youth in the entire community.
The hope is that by creating a new youth centre it will increase the numbers of youth being served by the centre and create more youth space and activities in the community.
Nak’azdli’s current youth centre is located behind the covered arena across the road from Petro Canada.
The discussion centred around getting a new building in a central location. Ideas were brought forward on new locations. Some of the suggested locations were: behind Kwah Hall, behind the Nak’azdli Natural Resources Office, behind the Nak’azdli Daycare and the old Chevron Town Pantry site.
The Nak’azdli Youth Centre is currently used by between 10 and 20 young people each night of the week, with different days of the week having activities focused on different age groups.
Mondays and Tuesdays are for Grades 2-5, Wednesdays and Thursdays are for Grades 6-8 while Fridays include activities for Grades 8-12.
The steering committee on the project will bring the ideas forward to the chief and council at their next meeting.