By Spencer Sterritt

NYSA Youth Employment Centre to possibly close at end of March

Feb 15, 2017 | 8:41 AM

NANAIMO — Amy Watts would be dead if not for the Youth Employment Centre at the Nanaimo Youth Services Association (NYSA). That’s the story she told after learning the employment centre will close on March. 31.

When she moved from P.E.I. to Nanaimo three years ago, Watts didn’t know a soul, found herself homeless and also struggling with sobriety. After coming to the employment centre, the association found her a place to live, helped her overcome her addictions and in the end found her a job at the centre.

“None of this would have happened without the employment centre to walk into,” she told NanaimoNewsNOW. “I’d probably dead if it wasn’t for them and all their programs.”

She said the centre is one of the largest parts of the Nanaimo Youth Services Association and she’s heartbroken it will close.

NYSA staff said funding for the youth employment centre was cut by GT Hiring Solutions, who used government money to sub-contract the NYSA’s employment centre to help youth grow and find job opportunities.

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NYSA CEO Steve Arnett said GT Hiring Solutions determined the employment centre wasn’t needed since NYSA already has the Bladerunner program, which teaches life and work skills to youth and helps them achieve both personal and professional success.

He said the employment centre gives youth the skills to succeed in their Bladerunner program and is all part of a longer process, not an alternative.

“It’s about investment in young people and a long-term view of unleashing the productivity and potential these young people have for success.”

He said though NYSA will still operate, it will be seriously wounded by the loss of the employment centre. “But it won’t be the organization that’s wounded. It will be our capacity to support and help young people in a continuum of care that makes sense, is coherent, cohesive and common sense.”

Carolyn Yeager, the Chief Operating Officer for GT Hiring Solutions, said this issue stems from a paperwork issue between them and NYSA. 

“We had some questions regarding some invoiced services and we asked NYSA leadership to provide us with some documentation that would support the fees being invoiced,” she said. “It has not been received and as of a result what we’ve done is we’ve referred the issue to the ministry for their review.”

She said the ministry will now handle the dispute and once the situation is resolved GT Hiring will be able to continue forward. She said in fact GT Hiring has funded the NYSA’s youth employment centre through 2019.

“NYSA provides exceptional services. They have for a number of years and our goal is to continue to work with them to ensure that the youth in Nanaimo have these services for years to come,” Yeager said. 

Phoenix Caine, a Bladerunner graduate who used the employment centre extensively, said losing the opportunity for guidance while hunting for a job will be a damaging blow to youth.

“As youth we’re told because we’re young we got some chances and it’s up to us as individuals what we do with those chances. We close those doors, we’re in turn telling you we all get chances but not this one. This is a chance we’re not going to give you.”

Without the employment centre, Robert Lambert would be waking up at four in the morning to visit a temporary job company.

“We had to walk over that at four in the morning and there was already people lining up,” he said. “It sucks.”

Through the employment centre, Lambert said he learned how to overcome his social anxiety during interviews and received a major confidence boost. He’s now enrolled in a coding program at NYSA, which he said is great because designing video games has always been his dream.

To promote awareness of the employment centre, NYSA will run PSA’s of their youth speaking about their experiences with the employment centre, speaking “truth to power” as Arnett said.

“We’ll let the public decide the value of whether or not they’re going to miss it.”

spencer.sterritt@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit