Perhaps by now you’ve heard about the amazing financial opportunity through Columbia Basin Trust that our region is expectantly facing in the upcoming funding cycle.
Earlier this year, CBT announced $4.65 million ($1.55 million annually) over three years for the development and support of a Basin Youth Network for youth aged 12 to 18. Community Youth Networks are eligible for up to $55,000 per year for up to three years for the hiring of a local youth coordinator and the funding of local activities and events for youth.
As it turns out, the East Shore has done such a good job with creating opportunities for local youth over the past four years with the Community Directed Youth Funds, that CBT is glad to help support the East Shore Youth Council with continued funding for the next three years.
The Youth Networks, supported through a CBT regional coordinator, will engage youth directly in order to increase activities and provide diverse opportunities based on local youth’s priorities.
The current funding cycle (the final of four years of funding – $25,000/year) is finishing up in October of this year, and it is now time to consider our options as to how we might allocate up to $55,000/year.
We would like to invite the community (parents, youth, businesses, school staff, everyone!) to an open meeting on August 11 at the Crawford Bay Hall at 7pm. We need your input!
- Do you have good ideas about how to spend some of this money?
- Have you imagined some programming that you think would be beneficial to local youth?
- What about infrastructure or job creation?
- Do you see yourself offering something?
- Do you just have an idea and want to submit it for consideration?
We have to create something of a template of activities/programs with approximate costs in order to receive the funding, so we need the communities help! We have opportunities and endless options. We can pay local teachers/mentors/coordinators to host workshops or events on a sliding scale of $20-$30/hour.
We hope to create some important community partnerships and invest in creating valuable volunteer/community service programming for youth, where they reap benefits from helping others within the community.
We are also looking for a new youth coordinator for the program. Steve Sayer has announced that he will be moving on to other things and will be resigning the youth coordinator position. The job is posted in this issue and more information can be obtained through Carol Vanr at 250.505.3760. This job may be a single position or may be shared with an ESYC administrator and be more of a projects and events dedicated person/position, depending on the applicant. The ESYC would like to warmly thanks Steve Sayer for his past year with the group and wish him all the best in his next adventures.