Second chances: Youth employment agency celebrates 50 years of service in Guelph, Ont.

A local agency that provides employment services to young people is celebrating its golden anniversary.

2nd Chance Employment Counseling (Wellington) celebrated its 50th anniversary on Friday with an open house at its office on Norfolk Street in Guelph. The staff decorated the office to resemble a time capsule, highlighting what had happened in recent years to mark the agency’s previous milestones.

When the agency first opened in 1974, it initially only offered services for people with addictions and disabilities. It was not until 1982, after receiving provincial funding, that 2nd Chance began offering youth employment and counseling services.

2nd Chance has since opened an office in Fergus and at the Stone Road Mall in Guelph.

Chris Baginski-Hansen has been a director at 2nd Chance for over 35 years and found it remarkable that it has existed for so long.

“Some years I would have said ‘no,’ and other years you felt more confident,” she said, referring to the agency’s longevity. “It all depends on the government of the time, it all depends on the economic times. But here we are. It feels like it went by very quickly.”

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Technology has changed over the past 50 years. In 1974, people used typewriters to put together their resumes and communicated via rotary telephones. Now almost everyone has a computer or wireless access to the Internet.

“When I first started, there were two computers in the office,” says Baginski-Hansen. “When the Internet became available for public use, everything changed. Suddenly we had all the information at our fingertips and we tried to think of a completely different way to do our work.”

Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield, Guelph MPP and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner and city councilor Carly Klassen attended the anniversary celebration. Longfield took the opportunity to announce that 2nd Chance will receive $1.74 million for the agency’s Ways2work program, which helps youth facing barriers to employment.

“It will help 140 young people in our community find work,” Longfield said. “And from there, those 140 young people will help another 140 young people.”

This is part of $370 million over four years from Canada’s Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program for employment and social development, announced earlier this year by Marci Ien, federal Minister of Women and Gender Equality and Youth, for more than 200 community-led projects across Europe. Canada.

“The Way2work program has helped more than 1,500 youth over the years and the results have been incredible,” said Baginski-Hansen.

Baginski-Hansen hopes that 2nd Chance will continue to help more young people find work over the next fifty years.

“We would like to see more resources put into staffing so we can do that more intensive work,” she said. “We don’t want young people to get a job for a few months, we want to see long-term success.”

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