Alberta Promises helps Strathmore youth

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Alberta’s Promise is a province-wide organization that wants to make partnerships with groups around the province to invest more into helping youth from a young age in their communities.
Strathmore partners were recognized at a Nov. 18 luncheon for assisting youth in the community with a Little Red Wagon, which has been Alberta’s Promise’s symbol for businesses to work together to benefit Alberta kids.
“Alberta’s Promise partners with organizations like the Youth Club of Strathmore, and others including, the Town of Strathmore. We try to raise awareness of local children’s needs, ” said Cristina Cernucan, Communications representative for Alberta’s Promise. “So the Youth Club is doing some incredible programming, we wanted to raise their visibility locally to showcase the amazing programs we have for kids. Those needs we have in the community seem to be additional resources for kids needing after school programs.”
The Youth Club offers a range of different programs for ages six to 17, such as homework clubs, drop-in science labs, sports groups, leadership groups and cooking lessons. These are meant to give a young child a higher self esteem and positive interactions.
Many community groups feel as though that there is an insufficient amount of support services and that is why through Alberta’s Promise, they want to offer mentorship programs to help create positive interactions.
“The Youth Club has been discussing with some agents locally to try and get a resource worker and we’re trying to raise awareness of that. There needs to be additional resources locally for kids who don’t fit in the traditional programs that are already offered,” said Cernucan. “Today we invited community leaders from across Strathmore, many of them are partners, some of them are new organizations that are hoping to support the initiative. At the end of the session we want to recognize the organizations that are doing amazing things for kids.”
The Alberta’s Promise is continuing to provide support for the youth and hopes to get more community organizations to join this initiative to provide a more positive environment for kids.