Prince Charles Secondary’s Student Hub is important because it reduces barriers to access.
That from Valley Community Services Executive Director Justine Keirn, she adds the hub gives access, ‘especially for students that might not live close to downtown. They don’t have to get transportation to appointments after school hours, they can just walk right down the hall no appointment needed.’
The Hub has been open two mornings a week since February, in the first nine days of being open it had 66 visits from students. It offers counselling services, outreach workers, a public health nurse one day and a physician the next. Keirn says the hub brings these professionals to the students.
PCSS, School District 8, Valley Community Services, Kootenay Employment Services, East Kootenay Addiction Services Society and East Kootenay Division of Family Practice all worked together to create the Hub. Keirn says it’s been a great community collaboration.
The project received funding from a few different areas including SD8, the Gleaners Society in Creston and the Columbia Basin Trust administered through Kootenay Employment Services