Rossland youths will benefit from a new program from Columbia Basin Trust that will invest in services.
Rossland was one of the four communities chosen for the spring implementation of the Community Directed Youth Funds Program, along with Trail/Warfield, Kimberley and the Nelson area.
Six communities will begin the program this winter as well in the pilot program.
Jennifer Ellis, co-ordinator for Neighbourhoods of Learning, said this is a good opportunity to provide some youth programming to Rossland.
Ellis said, though, that the precise nature of that programming won’t be decided until they get an official go-ahead from Columbia Basin Trust.
“We help them plan a workshop in the community,” Ellis explained. “All of the stakeholders that supported it in the community get together with a bunch of youths and decide how the money should be best spent.”
She said that means an opportunity to increase youth programming and educational opportunities in Rossland.
She suggested it could possibly go towards community linked-learning or inquiry-based learning.
“We don’t know yet,” she said. “It’s a community decision so it’s a good opportunity as well for the community to have a dialogue about youth.
“It’s also an opportunity for all of us to sit down and say, ‘what do the youth of Rossland really need and what do they want?’”
The original submission for the funding was Oct. 31 for the spring funding date.
Ellis said that the Trust has been generous with their funding.
The funding is a total of $100,000 for four years.
Ellis said the next step is to have the community workshop.
“So we, the Neighbourhoods of Learning committee, and Columbia Basin Trust will sit and organize the workshop,” she said. “They provide the facilitators and we provide the venue.”
The 15 organizations that supported the application will be invited to participate.
The workshop also has to have at least 25 per cent youth participants.
Ellis estimates that the workshop won’t happen until the spring.
“Now that we’ve been awarded the funding as a community the community sits down and decides how to best use it,” she said.
The local organizations that supported the application are the School District 20, the City of Rossland, Teck, the Interact Club, the Rossland Skatepark Association, Red Mountain Resort, FortisBC, the Heritage Commission, KAST, the Golden City Days Committee, the Rossland News, Winter Carnival Committee, Rossland Real Food, the Sustainability Commission and the Historical Museum and Archives Association.