Iqaluit commits $160,000 to youth crisis intervention, homelessness strategy

Money comes from city’s Building Safer Community Fund

The City of Iqaluit is in talks to purchase the Frobisher Racquet Club with the purpose of turning it into a youth wellness hub. It has awarded a contract to Halifax-based social enterprise Common Good Solutions to identify and assess the needs of the city. (File photo)

By Meral Jamal

The City of Iqaluit will spend $160,650 to support youth crisis intervention and homelessness prevention in the community.

At its meeting Tuesday, council voted unanimously in favour of providing the money to Halifax-based social enterprise Common Good Solutions. It will be drawn from Iqaluit’s Building Safer Community Fund.

The city’s recreation department issued a request for proposals looking for a consultant to establish a strategy to create a youth crisis intervention and homelessness prevention program in Iqaluit.

The department received one qualifying proposal — from Common Good Solutions — and determined it should be awarded the contract.

Last year, city council passed a motion to enter talks to purchase the Frobisher Racquet Club. The plan was to purchase it with the purpose of using it for youth crisis intervention programming.

The city will use the strategy developed by Common Good Solutions in order to help access the capital funding needed to purchase the racquet club, according to recreation department documents presented to council Tuesday, supporting a request for decision on the matter.

Correction: This story has been updated to remove incorrect information about the Frobisher Racquet Club. The City of Iqaluit has not yet purchased the racquet club.

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(7) Comments:

  1. Posted by John K on

    Does this mean the Club will be closing? Moving?

    Hopefully moving.

    Great initiative either way.

    • Posted by John K on

      Turns out this is just straight up wrong. According to the manager at the Club anyway.

      Poor form Nunatsiaq, poor form.

  2. Posted by Concerned citizen on

    This story is absolutely false! The Frobisher Racquet Club has not been purchased, and the City of Iqaluit has not been in negotiation to purchase the building!

  3. Posted by Newspaper of Record? on

    By newspaper of record, they mean, newspaper with the record number of corrections? The FRC remains a private business, in private hands.

  4. Posted by Iqaluit Constituent on

    Even the wording of their ‘correction’ infers the City is going to purchase the club.

    Correction: This story has been updated to remove incorrect information about the Frobisher Racquet Club. The City of Iqaluit has not yet purchased the racquet club.

  5. Posted by John W Paul Murphy on

    Let’s get back to the real issue “Youth Crisis Intervention” (interpret that as you will).
    One thing that always irked me while I lived in Iqaluit was youth (and all young persons) having to pay a fee to enter any of the community recreational establishments.
    Basketball, volleyball, soccer, swimming, baseball. The list can be added to.
    For crying out loud, we had to pay to rent a field for school-aged kids to play baseball over the summer. No service was provided unless one of us adults screamed (and I did often). The outhouses were never cleaned and I would never let a kid enter one. Cigarette butts and beer cans were left there on the ground by adults who had difficulty finding the garbage cans and butt containers. Never cleaned up by the hamlet staff.
    Many of the kids belong to families who can ill afford the fees, so the kids wander the streets because there is no safe place to spend time. (Need I remind anyone of the kids asleep at the front door of Northmart)
    The parent volunteers literally drove around town looking for kids who wanted to come out and play. We had parents and RCMP Officers come out and teach the kids how to play ball.

    But, the hamlet in their wisdom(?) still charged fees for access to and empty field.

    The parents worked hard and raised funds to pay for equipment to play with. Raised funds to help the kids go to Toronto for a training camp put on by the Blue Jay Alumni.

    This I feel is another report that will find its way to a bookshelf.

    Come one Hamlet Councillors, and use the expertise you have in town. THE population knows what is needed.
    Work with the volunteers in the community, cut unnecessary fees, and put the money where it is needed. Towards the kids.

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    • Posted by Money Talks on

      There’s never enough space in any program or facility.
      They are all “reserved” for the children of the rich.
      The way it is done is by requiring those “fees”.
      Taima.

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