Katherine’s Place will be a-buzz with with activity as staff begin to move in this month.

The facility, at 560-Tranquille Road, is named in honour of A Way Home Kamloops’ former executive director, the late Katherine McParlund.

Current Executive Director, Tangie Genshorek says they’re really close and getting really excited. “We’re almost almost there. We’ve got great support from easy housing and the city of Kamloops and the contractor, the developer, Plainsman construction, Misa man, shady, everyone’s been working really diligently to get everything to come together as quickly as possible here. So it looks like we will be finalizing everything and getting ready to move in before the end of February here.”

Genshorek says it will provide homes for 39 youth while also surrounding the clients with all the needed support services. She says it is a fairly new concept that is being developed here in Kamloops with the hope of being able to prevent the cycle of homelessness that many find themselves in a they age out of care.

“I’d say that there’s one group that does similar work at the Covenant House in Vancouver,” said Genshorek. “We work with them really closely, looking at their programming. And they’ve, they’ve recently just started working with BC housing as well. So this is really new work for BC housing. They typically serve only 19 and up, and they don’t focus on the younger demographics. So this is the first time that they’re doing that. And we’re really, really excited to push, you know the learning there, and try to develop some models for those folks who are under 19 as well. There’s younger and younger folks coming through our door every day.”

Staff are still being hired and trained as it looks towards a March opening date. Genshorek says there will be a lot of services that will help clients/residents be as self sufficient as possible while having access to needed supports. “They’ve got laundry and Wi Fi, and then they’ve got each youth has a youth worker that’s attached to them and helping them work through their life skills goals and their wellness goals towards, you know, whatever they see them themselves achieving towards independence.”

“Some folks are going to be really focused on their mental health, and especially if they’ve just come from the street or shelter, they’re going to need to stabilize and address mental health first and sometimes physical health. Other folks are going to be further along in their journey, and they’re going to be ready just to look at education and employment, and we’re going to have folks that can help them look into those avenues as well.”

“A huge part of what we’ve always done at a way home is collaborate with other community partners. So we’ll be expanding our weekly drop in to include more partners who’ll be on site at Catherine’s place to connect youth with the various services that they provide. So there’s no need for us to duplicate services that already exist.”

A Way Home Kamloops has come a long way from its grassroots beginning, which involved meeting in an abandoned building. The history begins in 2012 when Kamloops was named as one of two pilots to develop a youth homelessness action plan in a national initiative. Kamloops was one of two communities, the first in BC, to develop a youth homelessness action plan, through the Mobilizing Local Capacity program.

Genshorek says for anyone who knows someone who may need housing, or for any youth who needs housing, the best way to get in touch with A Way Home Kamloops Society is to to come to the youth hub, call 250-828-0446, or go to their website.