Thanks to a generous donation from the community, 15 teen clients of the Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent, several in wheelchairs, are going to travel by bus and see the Black Eyed Peas in concert at Sarnia’s Rogers Bayfest on July 18.  They will be accompanied by support staff.

The donors who wish to remain anonymous hope that, by supporting the trip, additional awareness of the Centre’s good work serving local children and youth with developmental challenges will be created.  “To us, this demonstrates the role our community needs to play in supporting the Centre and its clients,” says the anonymous donor, “These kids are part of our future and, regrettably, they are often marginalized.”

“This event is a wonderful opportunity for our teens to experience what their siblings and other teens are able to do naturally, independent of their families,” says Darlene Dowd, the Centre’s Teen Transition Project Facilitator.  One of the goals of the Life Links Program at the Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent is to increase independence of our youth while gaining new social and community skills. 

The Teen Transition Project is funded by a two-year $110,000 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation which comes to an end in August.  The grant allowed the hiring of a project facilitator who has been eagerly developing programs and making community connections for local youth to develop necessary skills for successful transition to adulthood.

Through one such new program, run at the Centre for the past three weeks, these teens are giving back to the community by raising money for Outreach for Hunger. Upon the program’s completion, they will volunteer at the food bank and present the funds raised.