Second chances: Youth employment agency celebrates 50 years of service in Guelph, Ont.

A local agency that provides employment services to youth is celebrating its golden anniversary.

2nd Chance Employment Counselling (Wellington) marked its 50th birthday on Friday with an open house at its office on Norfolk Street in Guelph. Staff decorated the office to resemble a time capsule highlighting what had gone on in years past to mark the agency’s previous milestones.

When the agency first opened in 1974, it initially offered only services for people with addictions and disabilities. It wasn’t until 1982, after receiving provincial funding, that 2nd Chance began offering employment and counselling services for youth.

2nd Chance has since opened an office in Fergus and at the Stone Road Mall in Guelph.

Chris Baginski-Hansen has been the executive director at 2nd Chance for over 35 years and found it remarkable that it has been around for so long.

“Some years, I would have said ‘no,’ and other years you felt more confident,” she said, referring to the agency’s longevity. “It all depends on the government of the day, it all depends on the economic times. But here we are. It feels like it went by very quickly.”

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Technology has changed over the last 50 years. In 1974, people used typewriters to put together their resumes and communicated through rotary-dial telephones. Now, just about everyone has a computer or wireless access to the internet.

“When I first started, there were two computers in the office,” Baginski-Hansen said. “When the internet became available for public use, everything changed. All of the sudden, we had information at our fingertips and we were trying to figure out a whole different way of doing our job.”

Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield, Guelph MPP and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, and city councillor Carly Klassen were on hand for the anniverary celebration. Longfield used the opportunity to announced that 2nd Chance is receiving $1.74 million for the agency’s Ways2work program, which helps youth who face barriers when seeking employment.

“It is going to help 140 youth in our community find employment,” Longfield said. “And from there, those 140 youth will help another 140 youth.”

This is part of $370 million over four years from the Employment and Social Development Canada’s Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program, announced earlier this year by Marci Ien, federal minister or Women and Gender Equality and Youth, to more than 200 community-led projects across Canada.

“The Way2work program over the years has helped over 1,500 youth and the results have been incredible,” Baginski-Hansen said.

Baginski-Hansen hopes 2nd Chance will continue to help more youth find work in the next 50 years.

“We’d love to see more resources put into staff so we can do that more intensive work,” she said. “We don’t want to see youth get a job for a few months, we want to see long-term success.”