Located at the intersection of 8 Ave. and 19 St. N.E. is a rose-coloured home with brown accents and a large sign hung outside the front door that says Cornerstone Youth Centre. A large clothing donation bin stands in the yard along with a garbage container on the corner of the lot with a mural of a bird perched in the hollow of a tree that looks freshly painted.
“The community is pretty strong here,” said Cornerstone Youth Centre’s Executive Director Melissa Tran. “Everyone in this area is supporting one another.”
But type “Mayland Heights” into any online search engine and a very different view of the community comes up. Stories about homicides, robberies and car accidents are typically seen at the top. Generally, Calgary’s Northeast communities do experience more reported crime than the city’s southeast quadrant, according to data released by the Calgary Police Service in December 2023.
However, as of January 2024, Mayland Heights was ranked at 140 as the safest community in Calgary and saw a 48 per cent decrease in crime during Feb. 2024 compared to Feb. 2023 according to the CPS.
And unlike how local media often depicts the community, Mayland Heights shows evidence of strong social ties and selfless friendships.
Meeting youth where they’re at
The Cornerstone Youth Centre strives to change this community’s often negative narrative by teaching youth life skills and conflict-prevention techniques that help them avoid or get out of situations that could push them into a cycle of criminality.
Born and raised in the northeast, Tran started helping out at the non-profit organization seven years ago as a practicum student. Shortly after graduating from Mount Royal University’s Child and Youth Care Counsellor program, Tran continued working part-time at the centre.
Following her efforts in both frontline and program coordination roles, Tran then became the executive director last year motivated by demystifying the negative narrative often voiced against her home-quadrant.
“It does get stereotyped a lot that the northeast community tends to be the lower financially situated and more dangerous or unsafe,” said Tran.
Established in 1994, the Cornerstone Youth Centre started as a drop-in centre. Today, the centre offers two out-of-school programs available to children in grades five to nine. The programs focus on teaching life skills, such as detecting misinformation online and assisting youth in discovering their individual passions. The program also supports an individual’s interests in music or art that can inform their future career choices.
Acknowledging that many residents of the northeast survive on tight budgets, the lunch program, Snacking for Knowledge, offers free hot lunches to youth who might not have access to hearty meals outside of the centre.
During the program, youth engage in “micro-interventions” or conversations teaching them about the world’s unsavory realities through topics like sextortion, online grooming and substance use.
Changing the narrative
Tran articulates how the program is intended to prepare youth to face life’s tricky circumstances by teaching them techniques of conflict avoidance and resolution — deterring them from resorting to criminal alternatives.
“I personally love to talk about it so they’re educated,” said Tran. “We can address it before it gets to the situation that they’re already doing it.”
Claire Theriault-Klyne, 13, attends the after-school program twice a week and enjoys how the centre gives her an opportunity to socialize with her friends. She also sees how the lessons are relevant outside the centre’s four-walls.
“They have a lot of programs that are interesting and about things that actually happen in real life and how to prevent them. How to fix them and stop them.” said Theriault-Klyne.
While learning about the negative consequences of overgeneralizing, program attendee Arden Dueck, 13, sees how one micro-intervention lesson changed the way she views people who are unhoused.
“Usually the people we see are the worst of a certain thing,” said Dueck. “Just because you see one thing as one person that doesn’t mean the whole group is like that.”
Mentoring matters
A different after-school program, Mentorship Matters, focuses on practical knowledge. Here youth learn how to recognize the exact cost of groceries and budgeting their income. Tran’s personal experience in the public school system brought her to see the importance of teaching financial literacy at a young age.
“When I was younger I never learned how to budget or finance,” said Tran. “I felt like I was just thrown into it.”
The centre is a phone-free zone, and the program requires youth to work with a mentor in creating “heartfelt” goals, as they’re known by the attendees. The goals describe the youth’s plan for their professional career after completing secondary school using guidance from their mentor.
Describing this connection as a “vertical attachment,” Tran sees that the relationship between a young person and someone higher-up in their neighbourhood — like a teacher, parent or older youth — is crucial to support school-aged children in becoming productive community members in their adulthood.
“It takes a community and a village to help youth be successful,” said Tran. “I think that’s what Mayland specifically has accomplished.”
