After a winter spent in Collingwood as a lift operator, a basketball coach from the U.K. fell in love with the town, set down roots and is now running the local youth centre.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we sat down with Lea Pankhurst, manager of the Collingwood Youth Centre.
Q: Can you give me a little background on you?
A: Originally I’m from Birmingham in the U.K. I went to the University of Worcester. I did a degree in sports coaching, science, physical education, biomechanics and nutrition. It’s a bit of a mouthful. (laughs)
I went on a basketball scholarship.
A big part of what I did when I was there was sports and disability. As well as being qualified to coach other sports, wheelchair basketball was a big thing that I took away from my degree.
After I graduated, I was working as a community wheelchair basketball coach and in the summers I was backward and forward between the university and New York City where I was a coach and director there. At the end of the summers, I used to take youths between 15 and 16 years old out west, like to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver. They’d play and we’d also do the touristy stuff as well.
Q: What made you want to do something where you were splitting your time on opposite sides of the world?
A: It was very much through basketball. The opportunity came up for me to go to New York. I had never flown alone by myself. It was a little bit daunting at first, but when I got there I realized how amazing it was. After the first year, I kept just wanting to go back. More opportunities kind of arose.
That life experience and job experience has been such a big thing for me. Working with youth in the U.K., the U.S. and Canada – they’re all kids, but they’re all different. Culturally, it’s different.
It’s kind of made me a little more well-rounded.
Q: What made you want to work with youth?
A: For as long as I can remember, even since I was a teenager, I really enjoyed working alongside youth.
When I was in Grade 8 and Grade 9, I was part of an outdoor education program where special needs students and able-bodied students worked in teams together... to go compete with teams from other schools. That was a really big trigger for me to want to do more things in the sport and disability field.
I pushed myself toward other opportunities (in that field), working with Special Olympics, different things like that. As I got older I just got more and more passionate about working with youth.
Q: What brought you to Collingwood?
A: I was in the U.K. for a few years after university. My friend and I wanted to do a little bit of travelling after we’d been working for a while. We wanted to do something for the winter season, because (previously) I’d always been away during the summer.
We found Blue Mountain and applied for jobs. Our first jobs were up at the mountain. I was a liftey, which was a really great job. I absolutely loved it.
My friend stayed in Collingwood. I actually went back down to New York after that, but I came back up and I’ve been here ever since.
Q: Is your friend still here too?
A: He is. We both kind of fell in love with the area. What a brilliant place. People sometimes ask me, ‘Why Collingwood?’
We’re on the water. The mountain is right there. Wasaga Beach is right down the road. (Being close to) Toronto, something small such as being able to go watch an NBA game. That’s not something I had the opportunity to do in the U.K. growing up and loving basketball.
I’m like a big kid. (laughs)
Q: How long have you been in Collingwood now?
A: Four years.
Q: When did this opportunity come up for you to manage the Collingwood Youth Centre?
A: Very recently. I just took over in September, but I had been working here part time since the previous year. So, I’ve been able to build up relationships with the youth that come through the door.
I’ve worked with the Environment Network of Collingwood for a few years. I run their boys summer camp, and they’re one of the overseeing groups. It was kind of an easy transition.
Q: Have there been any surprises since you’ve started working at the youth centre?
A: The joys of working with youth is that it’s all unexpected. (laughs)
I think you always see the positive and the negative.
Negative situations might be, dealing with youth that are coming to us for help in different situations such as homelessness, family situations, bullying.
The positive is that, since I’ve taken over, I’ve been so impressed with the help, contributions and people wanting to get involved with the centre. Collingwood is a great community for that.
Q: What are some initiatives that you’ve brought forward here, or want to bring forward here?
A: A big one that’s really blown up is our film and media club. That’s been going on for a couple of months.
That’s gone from an initial meeting with a Grade 12 student from Collingwood Collegiate Institute who had previously put together a movie, he got his friends involved. Now there’s a team of about 20 Grade 11 and 12 students who are all filming material, editing it, working on social media and graphic design. They’re really making outstanding stuff.
All I’ve done is facilitated and given them the tools to do this. They have the talent.
They’re working on four different projects.
One is a youth success series; it’s an interview series looking at youth in the community that have been really dedicated and successful.
They’re also doing a live session series which is youth coming in, performing by singing or playing (music). They record it and turn it into music videos.
Right now we’re working on a youth homelessness public awareness documentary. We’re looking to have that completed by about March.
Lastly, we’re working with the Town of Collingwood and Day Merrill who is the Poet Laureate looking at youth-identified issues they come across on a daily basis and turning it into poetry pieces. That’s hopefully going to be put up in town hall.
We also have the Kids Feeding Kids program. That’s turning into a job services pathway where local restaurants are involved. Youth work with our chef in the kitchen, he gives them the necessary skills. We give them WHIMS (training) and food handler safety. Then, we have jobs set up for them in Collingwood and Blue Mountain.
Q: Roughly, how many kids show up here daily?
A: Rough estimate? Anywhere from 15 to 30 depending on the evening or if there’s a program on.
We get Grade 7s, all the way up to Grade 12s. Backgrounds are totally across the board.
Q: Why is it important to have these kinds of programs in place for youth?
A: I think there’s a very fine line between having programs in place and giving them an opportunity where there’s a space they can just come and hang out.
No one really knows anyone’s situation unless you get to know them, so they might have a rough home life and they just need somewhere they can go to get away, a safe space.
We can also put programs in place where they can learn job skills or just new skills in general.
Having that all under one roof is so, so important.
So many adults have said it to me and I say it as well: I didn’t have a space like this when I was a kid.
At the end of the day, we also have to listen to what they want... you have to speak to your audience.
You have to ask kids and youth what they want. Not enough people do.
Q: Do you ever miss the U.K.?
A: My family’s in the U.K. I’m an only child. There’s certain things I miss. Certain foods and different things. Friends, obviously.
I’ve travelled a lot, I was away from when I was 18. I was never a homebody.
There are things I miss, but I’ve been very lucky, my family come over and visit.
Q: What do you see for the future of the Collingwood Youth Centre, or even in your own future?
A: From a personal perspective, I’ve always felt so supported by a number of people in the community, whether that’s been work related or personally.
It is a great place. I see it as my home now.
I love Collingwood and I’d like to see this place thrive.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we’ll be speaking with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way. This feature will run on CollingwoodToday every Saturday. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
