ESTEVAN - The Estevan Public Youth Centre (EPYC) has put out a survey, asking their future patrons to share their vision for programming.
The centre's executive director Juli Dzuba said the survey is pretty straightforward and will take under five minutes to fill in, but it will significantly help her navigate the programming they will offer.
The survey asks youths in Grades 7-12 to answer what it is that they would like coming out of EPYC.
"The youth are a really big part of our community. And obviously, because it is a youth-focused centre, I want to include their input in any way that I can," Dzuba said. "I just was interested in kind of finding out what their interests were. So what days of the week are best for them? Or if they would like to see activities happening on some of their basic interests. And then just a general question of what they would like to see EPYC be."
The survey was put out last week, and Dzuba has already received a few responses, but she said she'd like to hear more feedback from the Estevan youths as it's important to have their voices heard.
The survey can be found on all of the Estevan Public Youth Centre's social media pages, as well as on Snapchat.
Now that the EPYC has its first executive director, they are working on their space and programming.
"Things are going pretty well. We are trying to sort out our space and facility issues and learning from the community and some youth members to see what it is that they would like to see as we figure out our programming," Dzuba said.
In the meantime, they are getting ready to start their first season of programming this fall. Dzuba said it seems they are not going to have a permanent facility as of yet, so they will rent space for programming.
EPYC is also looking for volunteers.
"If there are individuals or younger folks that are interested in volunteering with EPYC, I would be more than happy to hear from them. They can reach out to me by email or my phone number. And we're just looking at getting some people organized so that when we do start running programming, we have individuals to help out with that," Dzuba said.
She added that more details are to come, but volunteering at the moment would assume programming support.
"Whatever our programming ends up being, just having extra bodies there to engage with youths and to work with youths, to help facilitate whatever programming is happening on that evening. We are always interested in individuals that obviously like working with youths and are willing to work with youths," Dzuba said.
"And then when I was referencing the younger folks, I was interested in getting individuals that are looking at that mentorship role. So not necessarily those that are still in school, but are younger adults."
The volunteer portion of EPYC is currently pretty basic and assumes just a couple of programming nights a week, which means that it won't be a big time commitment.
"Hopefully, our volunteers will enjoy it and grow with the program as the facility grows," Dzuba said.
If anybody wants to contact Dzuba with some input, suggestions or to sign up as a volunteer, she can be reached at juli.dzuba@theepyc.ca or at 306-421-3134.
