3 - meeting with the youth workers

October 3, 2007

Over lunch we met with the three YP workers - Karen, Gabrielle and Ruby. We were interested in hearing what their take on the project was, and what kind of continuity would be needed for the project (i.e. if we built a garden, who would take care of it?). They mentioned that in our consult with the older youth members, that we should be aware of what had been started by the last FCS group and what needed to be finished. This included graffiti boards for the outside of the building, a strawberry patch beside the building and an outdoor hammock.

Ruby and Karen also expressed a need for an outdoor storage space that would be accessible to the youth outside of YP building hours. There were alot of basketballs and various sports equipment that consistently went missing since there was no place to keep them. They felt that an outdoor shed of some kind, with a combination lock, would be a good exercise in responsibility and ownership for the YP kids.

Some suggestions and ideas from the group included cleaning out the bombshelter as a place for the kids to meet outside of YP building hours and including the youth in the actual execution of the project to encourage a sense of ownership. It was decided that cleaning out the bombshelter would require alot of research and community permission, as well as conversations among the community and the YP about how to keep that space safe and drug-free. It was decided in the end that it was too far off the radar for the YP this year.