Boys and Girls Club engagement centre near completion

TheSummersideBoys and Girls Club is putting the final touches on a new engagement centre where the kitchen will be the most important room in the building.

Programs offered at the new centre in P.E.I.'s second city are geared to thoseaged13 to 19. However, executive director Adam Binkleysaidparents will alsobe part of one program designed to help families talk together.

"Families are going to be gathered together with the sole purpose of building communication, love, trust, resiliency while they're making dinner," said Binkley.

Binkley saidmost Islanders know the supper table is the centre of the home, and the engagement centre wants to use it to build its program.

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"They're going to sit down they're going to eat their dinnertalk about their triumphs, maybe some barriers that happened that day or within the week," he said.

The program is free, and also offers children the chance to learn more about how to avoiddrugs, alcohol and deal with bullies. It was build using $600,000 in donations, and a new fundraising campaign will be launched to pay for the ongoing costs of running the new youth engagement centre.

Binkley saidthe expansion also means the club's traditional programs willbenefit by making more roomfor younger children in the main clubhouse. The official opening date has not been set yet, but the programs are expected to start in December.