Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Lennox and Addington Interval House’s Youth in Transition program, located at 47 Dundas Street E in Napanee, will celebrate its grand opening on Oct. 7 with a pancake breakfast by donation from 7:30-9 a.m.
Soft-launched in July, the program provides transitional housing for at-risk youth as they work towards developing skills to maintain permanent housing. The building contains six units for tenants that are referred to L&A Interval House by partnering agencies and provides a safe place for youths with nowhere else to go who are at risk of being traffic or their personal safety is in danger.
“We are at capacity and have been since Aug. 1,” said Sue Weir, L&A Interval House executive director. “We are currently wait-listing youth and have about 12 youth on our waitlist. This will be the challenge as the program allows for youth to stay up to 18 months and there really are limited options for affordable more permanent housing, so the turn over will be slow and the waitlist will continue to grow. This is a resource that all communities on a larger scale and across all of the different populations need more of.”
The grand opening marks a major step for the community, but the need still far outweighs what the service can provide at this time.
“The community can assist in many ways ranging from the financial support of the agency and its programs, to the provision of consumable supplies ranging from food donations to household items. They can volunteer in many ways again ranging from maintenance to volunteer driving to recreation and leisure skill opportunities to support the youth,” said Weir. “This project, although undertaken by LAIH, is a shared responsibility to assist the youth move through their journey to being individuals with full participation in the community.”
Friday’s grand opening take-out pancake breakfast is supported by the Napanee Rotary Club and Lioness Club of Napanee.