Sun Youth still adapting after being forced to leave its home

On a recent Monday, Sun Youth's Parc Avenue location was bustling with volunteers and people filling their holiday baskets.

Vanessa Boisvert picked up a turkey, vegetables, ground beef, cereal and a couple of toys for her son.

She said it will make the holidays a little easier for her family.

"With this food, we don't have to spend a lot of money at the grocery [store]. It's a big gift," she said.

The community organization's holiday basket program is a yearly occurrence. But while that tradition has remained, Sun Youth has been forced to adapt.

In 2018, the organization was left without a permanent home when theCommission scolaire de Montraldecided it wanted the old Baron Byng High School buildingback.

Now Sun Youth operates out of three locations, with its main site on Parc Avenue, sitting on the border ofParc-Extension and RosemontLa Petite-Patrie.

Thespace is divided into several sections: a food bank loaded with fresh produce, bags of pasta and other pantry staples, an area packed with stuffed animals and wrapped presents and a section for people to put their bags once they're filled.

Positives and negatives

There are positives associated with the location change there is a more open layout for the foodand clothing bank.

But there's a significant drawback.

"When we moved from Baron Byng, we lost our gym, and our training room, and everything," said Ann St. Arnaud,the organization's director of communications.

She said they've had trouble finding gym facilities nearby. For now, Sun Youth rents an indoor space on the Plateau for its recreation programs and agym space from a private school in Outremont.

Their current set up, St. Arnaud said, limits Sun Youth's ability to expand its programs.

"We can't develop anything new, so we're kind of stuck in that situation for the next few years," she said.

Leaving Baron Byng also reduced the organization's space to store larger donations like bikes and small furniture. Without the extra room, St. Arnaud says they've had to focus on food and clothing donations.

But leaving the Plateau means Sun Youth is now discovering a new neighbourhood, saidSt. Arnaud.

The organization has also received a parcel of soil to grow their own vegetables at the nearby Universit de Montral MIL campus.

Looking for a permanent home

Sun Youth still has a few years left on its lease on Parc,but has already begun looking for a permanent home where every servicecan coexist under one roof.

"Whether it's the Plateau, or a little bit north or a little bit south of that, that's primarily where they'd like to be," said director of property managementErnest Rosa.

The goal is to stay centrally located and accessible to the community.

Plateau properties are expensive and few are empty, he said.

Still, owning a building Sun Youth can call home has been a dream of the group's co-founders, Earl De La Perralle and Sid Stevens.

Rosa says one possibility is using part of the old Htel-Dieu building on St-Urbain.

"The objective is to try to find something that can be transformed into what we need. We need a building with a gymnasium. We need a building that can house trucks for deliveries," Rosa said.

"If it's transformable, we make it into what we need and that's really important for us."