Answers to Residents Questions on County Youth Strategy

Are 40% of the beds at Edmonton’s Emergency Youth Shelter Society (YESS) used at any given time by kids from Strathcona County?

The Mayor's State of the County Address indicated that 40% of the beds (134 of the 334 beds) at Edmonton’s Emergency Youth Shelter Society (YESS) are used at any given time by kids from Strathcona County. I do appreciate the corrections given by Youth Emergency Shelter Society Executive Director Deb Cautley. She indicated that 83 of the 334 YESS clients served in the past 10 months came from Strathcona County. I wanted to find out more about this Shelter that has assisted youth from our County. At the Shelter’s website, I found that the Shelter provides long and short-term residential programs for youth from St Albert, Strathcona County and the Edmonton area who are under 19 year with no viable living alternative. Services include outreach, support line, family mediation, life skills training, referrals, school presentations, and a day program. It offers 24/7 crisis-based walk-in and phone support.

The 2009 YESS annual report stated that 10% of clients (43 out of a 436 total) came from Strathcona County. There are 6,805 youth between the ages of 15 to 19 in Strathcona County. Council has asked that YESS be invited to speak to Council on the very important service they deliver to youth in our region.

Does Strathcona County have a Youth Strategy?

On April 29, 2011, the Edmonton Journal reported that Mayor Osinchuck stated “the county is working on an overall youth strategy with input from the Youth Council, churches, and other groups that will include examining whether a shelter is needed.” This is not true.

On April 27, 2011,  Council was asked by the Mayor in a priorities establishing retreat to add a Youth Shelter as a new initiative. Council rejected that as too narrow an approach to a larger more complex issue. Council talked about a possible future strategic direction of consulting with stakeholders and the public on a Youth Strategy that would review existing programs and partners and examine how to engage and provide services. The County has not contacted our existing internal or external program providers: schools, churches, agencies or regional service providers. This future initiative must be given structure, timeline and budget implications before it is brought to Council for consideration and prioritization. A Youth Strategy has not been framed or scheduled for public engagement at this time.

At that same retreat Council agreed that it would take on only five action items in the near term – these will be ratified at the next Council meeting. Prioritizing these strategic and near term action items would ensure that financial and staff resources will be sufficient to achieve the objectives. Some of these goals are long standing needs in our municipality such as a Rural Development and Industrial Strategy.

Does Strathcona County Need a Youth Shelter?

We do not know if Strathcona County needs a youth shelter. No studies have been done to provide facts and recommendations.

The Mayor has stated many times, most lately on the front page of ‘CityPlus’ of the Edmonton Journal that Strathcona County needs a shelter. As elected officials, we all campaigned on various platforms. We all have personal aspirations for the County. I continue my support of a safe, caring community that offers a high quality of life to our parents and children. The Mayor has campaigned for a youth shelter. As elected officials we need to examine the needs of our municipality and prioritize them against the financial and human resources we have to do the job.

The need for a youth shelter has not been examined or researched to any degree by any department in this municipality. Our parents are struggling with the many challenges of raising their children and youth to be responsible citizens: sexual assault; cyber and playground bullying; alcohol, prescription and street drug abuse. Locally and regionally there are hundreds of professional people and a myriad of programs designed to support families and youth at risk. Our Family Community and Social Services Department, works with provincial social service agencies, the RCMP, Parks and Recreation, schools, and existing non-profit service providers like Saffron Centre, Parents Empowering Parents. This County needs to do a comprehensive analysis on what issues we can address most effectively with limited resources. We need to capitalize on what our neighbouring municipalities are offering and work collaboratively on regional issues. Research speaks to troubled youth leaving the family unit to go to large metro areas where they can obtain drugs, money and action in anonymity. Would a Shelter in Strathcona County be used by our own youth?

Current shelters have great difficulty obtaining funding. Would another local Shelter compete for funding from existing shelters? Are our tax dollars better spent on preventive measures like outreach programs and services that resolve conflict and address the reasons why youth leave their homes? Instead of bricks and mortar, should we focus more dollars on proven successful programming like DARE, putting more family and youth workers into our schools? Provide more support to Girls and Boys Clubs, Cadets, Scouts, church youth groups etc who support our give our youth a safe place to go with good behaviour models? Do current programs that support youth staying in their homes have enough funding to do the job?

There are many more questions than answers. Before bringing in the construction crew to build a youth shelter, it behoves those responsible for our residents’ quality of life and the public purse to conduct a professional analysis of the situation, a review of the achievements of existing programs inside the municipality and out - and create a rational plan for moving forward in a timely manner with the input of all stakeholders.