Darin Reimer has just completed his fifth year as the Executive Director at Cornerstone Youth Society/Sanctuary Youth Center. The Center has been in existence since 2004 and since then has seen well over 30,000 visits of vulnerable youth. He is married o Cora almost 24 years and has three daughters. Darin's hobbies include carpentry and hiking. He has also traveled to the Philippines on numerous occasions to do relief and development work.
Sanctuary Youth Center was opened in 2004 and operates a 1500 sq ft space on Friday/Saturday & Sundays for youth. They provide warm meals, laundry, showers, clothing area, socks, toiletries and bus tickets. Largely they are known by word of mouth on the street and work closely with other agencies.
Darin began by thanking Harbourside for their support. Recent funding has gone towards mentoring support for youth. As a faith based organization, they draw support from 12 different churches in the city and are thankful for the support they get especially from volunteers.
When youth come and feel it is a house away from home. You can see the their invisible self-protecting wall begins to come down and they open up. They work with kids between the ages of 14 and 22 but have recently seen kids as young as 12-13 coming to the center. They are vulnerable youth because they are dropping out of school, they have substance abuse issues, are homeless or have mental health issues.
Volunteers come to just hang out and love the kids. They can build trust over time and teach the kids by showing them a positive adult relationship where the adult isn't asking, telling or demanding anything from them.
A helpful recent donation has been the City Pack which is a backpack made to help those on the streets. It has a cover included to protect the wearer and their things from rain and can clasp onto the wearer in a way that makes it hard to take if someone is sleeping. They are handing them out carefully to those kids who need them.
One of the biggest barriers to youth finding housing is emotional support from those around them. Darin finds his team extending their support with kids over time and out beyond the center like offering driving lessons, helping them with meals in the kitchen and giving back over time from past kids who found help at the center.
Coming up in October is their fundraiser the "Ride for Refuge" which has been done by the Cridge Center for the last five years but it is now being managed by Cornerstone. Walk or ride to support local charities that help the vulnerable - October 5, 2019 #ride19