Lexi Flex and Riley Miles want the District of Mission to consider creating a new community centre that could be used by youth and seniors alike.
The pair of teenagers spoke before council last week to present their ideas for a joint-use facility.
“Currently, the youth and seniors have spaces in separate buildings and don’t get any opportunity for each group to learn, or benefit from each other,” said Flex.
Flex and Miles told council they would like to see a new centre which overlaps space and programs for youth and seniors, providing an opportunity for interaction and mentoring.
Their idea would allow for separate spaces for youth and seniors to enjoy, as well as areas that both groups would share.
By creating this space, both groups could benefit, they said.
The duo offered examples, including youth helping to teach seniors about computer use and websites while the seniors could share their life experiences.
Coun. Rhett Nicholson helped the young duo to present their ideas, after he met them at the Youth Lounge in the Mission Leisure Centre.
The lounge is a small room and often as many as 35 teens are there.
Nicholson said the pair asked him what they could do to try to secure a larger facility. He told them that the first step would be to make people aware of the issue.
“So they came up with the idea to come to council and get the issue out there,” said Nicholson.
Bob Ingram, president of the Mission Seniors Centre Association, was at the council meeting and said he was both impressed by the presentation and encouraged to see that their ideas were in line with what the seniors’ association has been suggesting.
“We have been promoting and have the vision of a multi-generational facility and they are talking very much along the same lines,” he said.
Ingram believes it would be a positive step to have some discussions and collaboration between the seniors’ group and the youth committee, so that both groups are on the same page.
“We don’t want there to be any possibility at all that people see us as competing interests.”