CORNWALL, Ontario – A Cornwall agency that advocates for, and helps shelter children in need has undergone a rebranding – but one of their former clients hopes things don’t change too much.
Youth Now is the new name of an umbrella agency that has helped young people in city and area through group homes like Grace Arbour in Cornwall, and through partnerships with community agencies like the Children’s Aid Society.
A launch event was held Wednesday in Cornwall at the OPG Visitor’s Centre.
The branding will help put a new face on the agency, but its help with local children over the years is not expected to change – and Eliane Bergeron wouldn’t have it any other way.
Bergeron, in 2008, was a youth in transition. She was looking to escape the abuse she was suffering at home, and was placed at Grace Arbour in Cornwall.
She readily admits she had trouble with drugs, brushes with the law and was at a cross roads in her life.
Bergeron said caseworkers at Grace Arbour, including Alanna Wall and Kimberly Hayward, helped guide her back on track.
“The reason I made it, is because of them,” she said. “I would have never come out of those struggles.”
Today she advocates on behalf of young people who are facing similar challenges.
“I want to be someone’s Alanna,” she said.
Youth Now is in the midst of renovating a residence at the north end of Pitt Street, which includes three apartments and two rooms that will house youth in transition.
Dave Wood, Youth Now’s executive director, said the residence is expected to be ready for use by the end of the summer at the latest.
Youth Now has supported children in Cornwall and area, Akwesasne, Prescott-Russell, Ottawa and Peterborough.
Wood said as many as 30 young people are helped annually in Cornwall by Youth Now.
Youth Now can be reached at youthnow.co and 1-888-644-9647.
