Nov. 7 gala to raise funds for facility in Whalley, the largest Foundry site in B.C.
A November gala will benefit Foundry Surrey, a soon-to-open hub for youth health and wellness services at a central site in Whalley.
Construction workers have renovated the space at 10280 City Parkway, former home of A&B Sound and The Hockey Shop retail stores, across from Surrey Central SkyTrain station.
Under one roof, youth aged 12 to 24 and their families can access mental health and substance-use care, primary-care services, peer support and social services— same-day, free and confidential, no referral needed, as part of a B.C.-wide network.
“It’s an ideal location for this,” said Jacquie Robertson, manager of youth services in Surrey North for Pacific Community Resources Society (PCRS), lead agency selected to develop and operate Foundry Surrey.
Nothing like it exists in Surrey, to this scale, with several different organizations involved.
“This will be the largest Foundry site in the province, 18,000 square feet on all three floors of the building,” Robertson added. “It looks completely different in there now, with the lower floor for medical offices, main floor for social services and top floor for substance-use services and also some Indigenous spaces.”
Staff training began Sept. 26 at the site, built as “a safe and inclusive place where young people and families find flexible, accessible, non-judgmental support and care to meet their needs,” according to a post on foundrybc.ca/surreycentral.
Facility planning began nearly five years ago, Robertson noted, and the Foundry Surrey grand-opening is targeted for the day of a Nov. 7 gala fundraiser, co-planned with good friend Jen Temple, of Trademark Group of Companies.
Formal gala attire is encouraged at Civic Hotel during “An Evening With Friends,” billed as “a night of community, connection, and making a difference for Surrey’s youth and families.” Tickets are sold for $214 on eventbrite.ca, and platinum-level event sponsorship is valued at $15,000.
The project capital budget is $9.3 million, and another $1.3 million is needed.
“Services are already moving in,” Robertson said Sept. 27 as she gave the Now-Leader a building tour, pre-opening. “They’re getting furniture set up, and over the next couple of weeks all the services will be moving in. We’d like to be open by mid-October.”
A 12-minute video posted to Youtube focuses on Foundry Surrey.
“I always explain that Surrey’s doing really well at servicing those super high-risk kids, those who are coming up on everybody’s radar,” Robertson said. “We know who the most high-risk kids are, but it’s those mild-to-moderate kids, among the over 80,000 kids who are in the school district, that are slipping through the cracks, the ones who are suffering mental health issues, have eating disorders, the ones facing gender dysphoria, things like that. This targets those mild-to-moderate kids.”
The need for Foundry Surrey is real, Temple underlined.
“Kids are going to come here and be better informed and maybe not so overwhelmed and anxious after having somebody to talk to,” she said. “Having somewhere like this, a safe place, could be a game-changer for some kids.”
Robertson echoes those thoughts.
“And maybe once they’re here and talking to someone, other things might be brought up, other issues or problems they might have,” she said. “We’re going to have skilled youth workers and counsellors who can step in and help that youth right away.”
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