Young people in Grande Prairie have spoken, and named the best youth employer, youth friendly business, and engaging organization in the city. Yesterday was the first ever Youth Engagement Awards.
AHS Addictions and Mental Health Services was named the most youth friendly business in the community. Mental Health Therapist Nicole Marshall says the program works with young people of all ages on things like addictions, emotional and physical health, depression, anxiety and learning disorders. She says it greats to see those kids now taking an active role in the community.
“Once they’ve been in the other chair and sort of, been the recipient of support and encouragement and advocacy, they often decide they want to do that and find a way to make their own difference in the world, so it’s pretty neat.”
The John Howard Society’s Tabono Centre received the Community Engagement Award. April Tranter is a program coordinator for the strength based learning centre that provides life skills training for at risk youth.
“I would say the biggest honour is the fact that our youth nominated our program, so that was huge, and we’re very grateful for that, so is the fact that we won, I’m really excited to take this back and show them.”
The Eastlink Centre was named the Youth Employer of Choice. Lauren Kemp is the Child & Youth Acting Supervising Manager for the facility. She says the award is very exciting, and a bit of an eye opener for them.
“For the past year we’ve been talking about how to get more youth in our facility for things to do, and then all of a sudden we get this award, and we’re like, wait a second, we do have the youth in our facility and it’s our employees that we’re catering to!”
The Youth Engagement Awards are a new part of Grande Prairie’s Youth Week celebrations, which run from May 1-7.