The City joins forces with the Lloydminster Community Youth Centre to help make walking trails look a little cleaner.
For three-years Lloydminster and the youth centre have focused their efforts on cleaning up areas with graffiti in the city. Manager of social programs and services for Lloydminster Patrick Lancaster says the volunteers will gain good feedback from residents and some experience they can put on their resume.
” I definitely think that the kids get a lot of positive feedback from the community, people tell them what a good job they’re doing, it really gets them more interested in volunteering, as well as part of the program they get practical skills.”
Residential fences along walking trails between 31 Street and 29 Street have been chosen as the area to focus on this year. The first of four graffiti removal events starts on July 5th from 1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Kids from the age of 12 to 17 participate in the cleanup. Depending on the session as many as 15 kids take part at once.
The area was chosen after complaints about the graffiti from residents in the community and is a good place to bring the kids for cleanup says Lancaster.
“We received complaints from residents about this area and as part of that complaint process the recommendations to involve the youth in the cleanup process was brought to our attention. It naturally came together that this is an area we can bring the kids to and get that support to cleaning up this area.”
Lancaster adds there is a low cost to the project due to donations and the volunteering from the Youth Centre.
“The program is very affordable. The youth centre provides all the labour, we get supplies donated from home depot, so the cost to the city is the facilitation to the program and helping with some of the logistics and that’s covered as part of our FCSS funding budget.”