The Inter-Tribal Youth Centre (ITYC) was closed indefinitely on Friday, March 30 due to funding shortages. The ITYC was located in the basement of its parent organisation, the Native Friendship Centre of Montreal (NFCM), and together they constituted the frontline in sheltering Montreal’s urban aboriginal community.  The ITYC was the only aboriginal centre available in Montreal to address the needs of aboriginal youth, and offered services ranging from healthcare to cultural development.

ITYC assistant co-ordinator Erin Montour explained that the centre provides programs including life skills development, goal-setting, leadership development, and cultural development.

“These activities have been pivotal in allowing our youth to reach their goals and succeed in their lives,” Montour said. “Our centre is an essential space where youth can make ties with their community in urban Montreal. Our closure is a devastating loss for the well-being of our youth.”

These national shifts in management and administration eventually led to a decision by the Provincial-Territorial Association and the Regroupement des centres d’amitié autochtones du Québec (RCAAQ) to suspend NFCM’s provincial membership, limiting the centre’s access to AFCP’s core funding of $171,237 for the fiscal year of 2011-2012 and beyond. The decision essentially terminates NFCM’s operations-including the ITYC.

“The implications and impact in terms of cultural loss and access to programming and basic services … are particularly serious for Montreal’s urban native community,” NFCM’s executive director Brett Pineau said.

In an effort to reverse the effects of RCAAQ’s decisions, the NFCM are organising a letter-writing campaign, as well as circulating petitions to reinstate funding for the centre. Allan Vicaire, the project coordinator on the Aboriginal Sustainability Project supported by the Social Equity and Diversity Education (SEDE) of McGill University, wrote a letter to RCAAQ to support NFCM’s cause.

“The Native Friendship Centre of Montreal and Inter-Tribal Youth Centre are valued partners in our efforts to foster awareness of aboriginal issues on McGill campus and throughout the Montreal Community,” Vicaire wrote in the letter to the president, executive director and members of the RCAAQ. “As part of our obligation to sustain local aboriginal presence and maintain a vital community, I ask you to reconsider your decision to cease funding for [NFCM and ITYC].”

NFCM is also organizing community mobilization and action, with a Grassroots Day of Action and Mobilization planned at their centre on Thursday, April 4 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.