In collaboration with several partners, Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU) has officially opened the new Youth Wellness Hub for London-Middlesex, one of only 22 in Ontario.
The hub, located in YOU’s existing space at 332 Richmond St., will allow youth aged 12 to 25 to access supports to address mental health, substance use, primary care, education, employment, training, housing and other community and social services.
“It actually started 10 years ago, we had 25 organizations coalesce together, looking at how can we do something like this?” CEO of YOU Steve Cordis said.
“That group has changed over time in those 10 years but continues to be the champion of this and move it forward.”
In order to get the wellness hub off the ground, YOU partnered with CMHA Thames Valley Addiction and Mental Health Services, Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario, and community partners.
The hub opened its doors for initial programming in July but wasn’t offici
ally open until now. According to YOU, more than 80 young people are already taking advantage of the services offered by the hub.
“(The hub) will be a safe third place for people to be that resource. Sometimes it’ll be general wellness, art therapy programs, ways in which young people can connect with their community, as well as those tangible, practical supports, like mental health supports, addiction supports, employment, housing.”
The wellness hub is separate from the homeless hub that is planned for the same location, but Cordis says the programs will overlap in some ways.
“The homeless hub is more directed to people that are currently experiencing homelessness, high-acuity young people in our case,” Cordis said.
“(They) will plug into the wellness hubs to the extent that they want to, because that’s where the mental health supports, that sense of community are. So there’s a wonderful dovetailing there.”
The hubs are provincially funded, with the government contributing around $500,000 to the project.
Ontario’s associate minister of health, Michael Tibollo, said the wellness hub is an investment into the future.
“It’s clear that investing in our youth is going to make a huge difference in the overall mental health of adults, and eventually seniors,” Tibollo said.
“We may not see the results in the next four years or the next election cycle, but we will see it over the course of time, because the more we do to build resiliency today, the more there will be mental wellness in our adults.”
Tibollo says a community-level approach, instead of a hospital-centric one, will give the best results with regard to mental health, addictions and prevention.
Angus Ronan, a youth advisory member with the London-Middlesex Youth Wellness Hub, says this hub will offer an important “third place” to go for leisure and community, separate from work or home, for struggling youth.
“The hub will be a place where social bonds are formed, and not only that, where people are integrated organically with the social services, counselling, and other resources available to them,” they explained.
“It’s a space that is familiar, that they belong to, where they don’t have to go out looking for help because it’s met them where they’re at.”
Ronan adds that once Joan’s Place, just across the street from YOU headquarters, is finished construction, the wellness hub will feel “so much more real.”
“The more people know about it, the more people find out about it. It’ll start to accumulate momentum. Because the more people are already going, the more regulars they have, the more appealing it’ll be to new people. And my hope is that it will just be a place where people feel connected.”
Those interested in accessing the facility’s supports can contact YOU or visit in person to see what programs are available.
Comments