Youth Center unveils plans

As you climb the stairs of the Kahnawake Youth Center (KYC), the photographs and newspaper clippings hugging the walls tell a story of growing up in Kahnawake that is now familiar to generations.

The KYC has served the community for more than 50 years, and executive director Kyle Zacharie wants the centre’s future home to grow with Kahnawake for another half century and beyond.

“We don’t have a crystal ball, but we need to plan out and make sure that the facility is still a hub for the community in that time,” Zacharie said.

With such grand ambitions, the KYC is focused on getting the community’s feedback early and often, with three-dimensional renderings and two potential locations presented last Friday in a public meeting at the youth centre’s gymnasium.

“We just want to hear from as many community members as we can because this is really a community project, and we want everybody involved,” said Zacharie.

The potential sites for the building are behind the Kahnawake Sports Complex, where construction is projected to cost $93.5 million, and the old Kahnawake Survival School site, where the building would cost just over $95 million.

“There are pros and cons to both sites,” said Zacharie. “That’s why we want to collect as much community input as we can.”

The building would take a different shape at either of those sites, but both versions hover around 110,000 square feet of space and include amenities like an aquatic centre, a running track, and a year-round field house for lacrosse, soccer, and other activities. Besides the athletic facilities, the KYC will continue to be somewhere for youth to spend time in a positive way, Zacharie emphasized, maybe even having their own entrance and exit to allow them later access to a drop-in centre, giving Kahnawake teens a safe space to spend their time.

The cost projections could change, of course, with the project not expected to break ground until late 2028 or early 2029.

“We have long since outgrown our current location,” Zacharie said. “We’re the only multigenerational recreation centre on the territory, and we can’t even meet the needs of our own people right now, so it really is time to look at the future of recreation and where it’s heading. This centre is going to be a big part of that.”

If all goes well, the building could open in late 2030 or sometime in 2031. First, there will be more decisions to make, processes to go through - and a lot of fundraising ahead.

Like the long road to the soon-to-open Kahnawake Cultural Arts Center, the KYC project will likely rely on a combination of funding sources and envelopes to ensure the vision comes to life.

In the meantime, the Youth Center is focused on generating feedback and support.

“I saw the post on social media and instantly became excited,” said Crystal MacKenzie Deer, whose children attended summer camp through KYC this year.

“I really hope this comes to fruition as the community will benefit from it tremendously on so many levels,” she said. “It would be great for job creation, athletic training, skill development, extracurricular activities, and so much more. I’m optimistic that it will be complete for my kids to enjoy the benefits.”

As far as MacKenzie Deer is concerned, the KYC can’t go wrong when it comes to location.

“I feel like either one would be great,” she said. “Near the Sports Complex would be cool to keep all sports together.”

Zacharie was pleased with the turnout on Friday and the chance to show off what the KYC has been planning.

“People’s reaction made the wait so much better,” he said. “My team and I have been working on this for at least 14 months. We’ve been thinking about it even years before that.”

He said that while the plans are still subject to change, the 3D concepts convey the scale of the vision for the community’s future recreation hub.

“Although it’s just a picture, it really allows people to understand what we could have in our community, and it was exciting to see people’s reactions that way,” he said.

Kahnawa’kehró:non can expect more information and visuals to be posted on the KYC’s digital channels.

[email protected]

Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter