OUR HISTORY
Routes Youth Centre
Routes Youth Centre (Routes) grew out of a concern in the mid to late 1980s for our community’s unconnected and vulnerable young people, and an awareness of troubles in which young people found themselves loitering on the streets and gathering in abandoned buildings. A committee of The Association of Dundas Churches was formed and “youth chaplains” scheduled to be available on the streets on weekends, particularly Friday nights. The home of one of the clergy became a hub for youth by the early 1990s. Our work in those days included making connections, assisting teens rejected from home and/or school (including short-term housing), and supervising Court-ordered community service “volunteers”.
In September of 1992, leaders of the community’s churches, schools, Town Council, Police Services, Public Health, Dundas Community Services, and Recreation Service met to discuss the concern from their perspectives and to explore what might be done. Meetings and focus groups ensued while the volunteer chaplaincy work continued.
2015 Community Cleanup
In the mid 1990s The Salvation Army established a drop-in centre, “The Upper Room”, in their building at 165 King Street West, and monies were set aside by The Rotary Club of Dundas to help equip it. In the late 1990s The Army re-established the drop-in at the Armouries on Friday nights under the name “Free Zone”.
A Community-based group, Dundas Youth Chaplaincy (DYC) was established. They revived the drop-in (2000) renting the basement of the Carnegie Gallery and staffing it with volunteers. When renovations at the Armouries were complete, the drop-in program was moved to that location. DYC hired a part-time coordinator (2001) to recruit, train and manage our volunteers, to lead the drop-in, and to expand the program to include a “Dinner & Discussion” feature mid week. The name “Routes Youth Centre” was adopted to suggest that we could help youth to find more positive ‘routes’ than idleness and loitering on the streets. During this period, DYC continued contact & networking with the youth outside program hours. DYC ran a full-time summer program in the summer of 2002 based out of the Dundas Baptist Church. One of the “Battle of the Bands” nights attracted some 300 youth.
In June of 2003 DYC entered a partnership with The Salvation Army, Dundas, who provided space at their location, and increased the hours of our Youth Worker to full time. In July, 2003, we opened a permanent “place” for youth at 150 King Street West. This dedicated space included two full-size pool tables, table tennis, air hockey, soccer table, game computers, computers with Internet connection, club tables, old sofas and comfy chairs, CD players, and other amenities that were used weekly by 50 to 100 teens. We established a second drop-in (Jive) at The Dundas Lions Memorial Community Centre to split out the younger youth from the high-school youth and to adjust programming accordingly.
The partnership with the Salvation Army was dissolved in 2011 and the operation of Routes Youth Centre returned solely to the community-based volunteer group. Routes moved to the Dundas Lions Memorial Community Centre shared space on the second floor in 2012 then to the west end annex dedicated space mid-September 2013.
Dundas Youth Chaplaincy was incorporated as a registered charity in 2006, enabling the issuance of tax receipts as well as other benefits of incorporation. Our incorporation was renewed under the federal Not for Profit Corporations Act, effective 2013.
Program operations continued under the banner of Routes Youth Centre. In 2012, we introduced our red, white & black colours featuring the “Routes Dude”.
In 2016, Routes was approached by Dundas Community Services to transfer their youth programs (Youth Employment Supports, Baby Sitting Course). In accepting this challenge, Routes became the sole after-school youth program in Dundas and surrounding area.
2019 saw the creation of a new strategic plan for Routes, focused on enhanced food literacy programming, concurrent programming for multiple age groups and board development.
The world-wide Covid pandemic struck in 2020 affecting Routes as it did so many other aspects of our society and our economy. Centre based programming was temporarily halted. We retained our full-time staff during this period to maintain connections virtually with our youth through online clubs, video-gaming, etc. This turned out to be a two-year period.
Downtime at the Centre, during the pandemic, was utilized to complete renovations creating a multi-use kitchen, crafting and gathering area and to improve the lounge / office area. The lounge area is home to computers, gaming centre, foosball, meeting tables and more.
Routes Youth Centre was re-opened in May 2022 with a renewed focus on food insecurity.
In 2024, Routes updated our brand with multi-coloured interconnected lines superimposed on a blue background. The purpose was to project our philosophy that “community is best formed in an organic manner, it shouldn’t be forced. There is strength in numbers. After all, the safety of a net only exists because of the strength generated by its intersecting pointes. We blend perfectly imperfect shapes in a variety of colours, weaving them to imply an ever-moving, always adaptable support system.”
2024-25 saw a record number of 309 youth at Routes through 5,927 visits and 4,241 meals served.
Routes has supported the community for over 30 years, now providing programming and food security to an average 300 young people per month. The Centre offers snacks, dinners and take-away bag lunches for school the next day. Organized daily activities and field trips provide physical and social nourishment,
Routes Youth Centre Board reflects many years of experience in education, business & industry, municipal leadership, social services, health services, recreation, and volunteer community service.