The service saving Glebe youth

Glebe Youth Service commemorated the revamping of its community centre on Monday by hosting a community meal with local MP Jamie Parker.

The 28-year-old service based on Glebe Point Rd is a one-stop shop for youth where they can be safe, creative and connect with people and services that can assist them to remain in the community as valued contributing members of society.

On the back of concerted advocacy from Mr Parker, Glebe Youth Service was able to secure $26,000 through a State Government initiative called ‘Community Building Partnerships’, allowing the centre to polish and repair an aging floor, install ambience improving and carbon foot print reducing skylights.

“Making the place welcoming is really important – welcoming for the young people that use the facility, but also supportive for the staff who work here,” Mr Parker said on Monday.

“We know in the office it was around 40 degrees in summer and the place really needed to have an overhaul. The move that we’ve done to get this grant support has been really transformative.”

Coordinator of Glebe Youth Service, Keiran Kevans is now working with Mr Parker and the State Government to secure a grant to revamp the centre’s aged kitchen, where youth are fed daily.

Mr Kevans said the service plays a critical role in maintaining harmony and wellbeing for the Glebe community.

“Young people have a need to socialise,” he said. “They can be energetic and they can be loud and at times scary for the rest of society.

“But if we provide them with safe opportunities to do what biologically comes naturally – socialising, interacting and being in a peer group – then we’re benefiting the whole community.

“We’re always trying to minimise risk with our young people by having conversations about the negative consequences of alcohol and drug abuse, and the negative consequences of driving too fast in their car or motorbike.”

Mr Kevans and Glebe Youth Service’s staff works to provide youth with “pragmatic solutions” in the face of traumatic circumstances.

“What young people want is perhaps some acknowledgement of the pain that they’ve been through, but what they really want is pragmatic solutions to those issues,” he said.

“They want a house to sleep in, they want to get back into school and they want to get a job.”

Glebe Youth Service conducts an ‘After Dark’ program on Friday and Saturday nights, providing youth with activities and a place to go.

“There’s something for them to do and there’s a feed there for them,” said Aunty Wendy Buchanan, who has assisted at the After Dark program for seven years.

“A lot of kids come from broken homes with domestic violence. I’ve been through it myself and I know where they’re coming from. They like to have that comfort and someone to talk to about what’s going on in their lives.”