At Estevan City Council's meeting on Monday night, the Estevan Public Youth Centre (EPYC) made their case to city council for financial support. They knew they had a good case, but perhaps they didn't expect it to go over as well as it did as quickly as it did.

Council unanimously voted to throw their support behind the youth centre to the tune of $20,000. It was another step forward for an idea that has been years in the making and finally seems to be getting closer to being a reality. 

"Beyond shocked, we are absolutely thrilled," said EPYC's chairperson Cathy Welta. "We couldn't be more excited to have them on board to support us with this venture."

Welta had expected council to deliberate a bit more before granting them the funds they needed, but it turned out council didn't need to make much of a decision. The support was nearly instantaneous. 

"Not only were they on board so fast but it was more or less unanimous," she said. "They had nothing but supportive, great comments to say. Every councilor had nice things to say about it. I wasn't expecting a response (that night) either. The fact that they made a motion and passed it that fast is beyond our wildest dreams."

The money will be used for starting up and purchasing some equipment for the centre, though that will come after they have a physical location, which will come after they have a youth programing coordinator. For all the hurdles still to jump over, however, there is real progress and the youth centre, for so long just an idea, is starting to look more real. 

"For over a year, we were working on it and putting everything into place and doing the groundwork and laying everything out," said Welta. "And now, it's finally starting to come to fruition. It's almost unreal how fast everything is coming together and the support we've had from community members and from the city."

The city has also allowed the youth centre to take a spot in their business incubator until they have a more permanent home. Welta said there was still a need for support and funding and they were putting the last touches on their sponsorship packages. 

"We're going to have to look at some fundraising possibly at the end of 2021 going into 2022 as we get our executive director lined up," she said. 

The hope is that EPYC will be up and running by July of this year.