PORT HARDY, BC- A new community space could be coming to the North Island Mall.
Project organizer Jilly Laviolette said what they’re essentially trying to do is create a community centre to bring back “community”. The project is known as the “Hub”.
“There’s the religious groups, there’s the sports groups and all these different interests in town, but there’s nowhere where these groups can kind of meet or have common ground, it’s all everyone doing their own kind of thing,” she said.
“I’m just trying to kind of break the cycle of ‘there’s nothing to do on the North Island, let’s complain about it’, and this is something I’ve always wanted to see is sort of a community centre where we can have cooking classes, or art classes, just a variety of programs.”
Laviolette said originally, she had planned to start a non-profit kids’ activity space, when she was approached to create a ‘maker-space’.
“A maker-space is basically a crafts space. There’s one that popped up in Port McNeill from their non-profit group, Kids in Motion,” she explained.
“When I moved back from Port McNeill, I was so bummed out that there was nothing like that in Port Hardy, and decided that something needs to be done about it.”
She said the non-profit has been formed, and they are currently in their planning process for the community “hub”. She noted that they are working to get some funding, and applying for grants to help bring the space to Port Hardy.
“Originally, we were hoping to open the doors in the fall, but now we’re kind of hoping for the summer time,” she said.
“If it’s raining or it gets too hot, we figured it might be a good idea to offer it in the summer so that there are more programs to use.”
Laviolette said the project and community hub will be open to everyone.
“We just really want to bring back community, we want people to feel that they have spaces to go if they’re new to town. (We just) want more community spaces.”
The group held their first meeting last week.
