Transformational change taking place in Glace Bay
AUDIO: Updates on the New Dawn Youth and Family Centre and the Icelandic Prevention Model, two projects working in tandem to reshape the future of Glace Bay, on CBC Radio’s Information Morning
The New Dawn Youth and Family Centre will be a vibrant, 25,000-square-foot hub for children, youth, families, and the wider community. It will house a full-size gymnasium, indoor and outdoor skateparks, a commercial teaching kitchen and welcoming cafeteria, classroom-style spaces for programming, and 49 new childcare spaces in Glace Bay’s first licensed childcare centre in over 50 years.
More than just a building, the New Dawn Youth and Family Centre is a promise — of brighter days, of dignity, of love. It will be place of belonging where children, families, and neighbours can grow side by side and the community can reclaims its future through hope.
Work on the site, located in the heart of Glace Bay at the intersection of Reserve St. and Official Row, has already begun and the building will begin to take shape in the coming weeks. In the meantime, New Dawn has launched a community fundraising campaign to raise $2.6 million for the project after securing $16.8 million in government funding.
Alyce MacLean, New Dawn’s Director of Properties and Developments, and Chris Kaiser of Undercurrent Youth Centre, joined CBC Radio’s Information Morning host, Steve Sutherland, to share an update on the project and talk about the fundraising campaign.
You can listen to their conversation here.
You can learn more about the New Dawn Youth and Family Centre here.
You can buy a ticket for the 50/50 raffle here.
The New Dawn Youth and Family Centre is the cornerstone of a new wave of transformational change happening in Glace Bay. Undercurrent Youth Society, which operates a youth centre in Glace Bay and one in New Waterford and will move into the new building when it is completed next year, is leading another important community-led initiative — the Icelandic Prevention Model (IPM).
IPM is a proven, community-based approach to reducing youth substance use. The idea is simple but powerful: when families, schools, and communities work together to strengthen relationships and provide positive activities, youth are less likely to turn to drugs or alcohol. This approach has already changed youth outcomes in over a dozen countries and is now taking root in Canada, backed by the Public Health Agency of Canada. What makes it different is that it focuses on the environment around youth — their families, schools, and communities — rather than placing all the responsibility on the individual.
In other words, we are building something beautiful — together.
Undercurrent Youth Society has secured $700,000 in federal funding to implement IPM in Glace Bay. Trevor DenHartogh, Undercurrent’s executive director, spoke with Information Morning host, Steve Sutherland about the initiative and how that funding will be used.
You can listen to that conversation here.
Learn more about the Icelandic Prevention Model in Glace Bay and New Waterford here.
