Navigating the rocky road to adulthood is challenging for young girls at the best of times.

 

Each year, the Boys and Girls Clubs of South Coast BC (BGC) helps more than 10,000 kids and families facing social and economic difficulties. In Surrey, Delta, and Langley, that translates to 300 per day and 1,195 each year. But with ongoing cuts to provincial social services coupled with an increasingly uncertain economy, BGC has recently witnessed a spike in demand for its after-school prevention program.

 

Imagine living every day filled with the pain of hunger, never knowing when or where you’ll get your next meal. For thousands of Surrey residents, this situation is a sad reality of life.

 

“It’s disheartening to know that a quarter of children in the province are living below the poverty line, and almost 20 percent of adults face food insecurity on a daily basis,” explains Elizabeth Crudgington, executive director of the Quest Outreach Society, a non-profit organization that runs a low-cost grocery market in Whalley.

 

PoCoMo Youth Services Society has been awarded a $15,000 grant from the Envision Financial Community Endowment, housed with the First West Foundation. The funding  supports  Project Reach Out, an award-winning mobile drop-in centre and outreach program for youth.