The Bridge offers educational, social and arts programs, and activities for youth.
“[The Bridge] has kept me from being homeless and connected me to a welcoming church. It has impacted me about how I feel about life and has given me fresh hope to keep going.”
“I am excited to live an independent life not only with support from resources [from The Bridge] but also to have and keep growing my relationship with God.”
“What excites me about my future is that I don’t know what it holds for me. Although it may be scary, it excites me.”
These are just a few of the countless stories of hope, safety and acceptance coming out of The Bridge, a youth resource centre located in Leamington, Ontario. The Bridge’s vision is to see every youth reach their potential.
Since opening its doors in 2017, the organization has provided a safe environment to youth between 14 and 24, giving participants access to food, showers, laundry, computers, recreational activities and social interaction. The Bridge also partners with other agencies to provide emergency housing, support services for youth in transition, as well as educational and career development programs.
Eighteen different roofing companies worked together to install a steel roof on The Bridge facility, covering all labour and material costs.
The organization currently has 10 units of transitional housing with supports for youth. It has also just completed construction of 12 housing units — four of which were built in partnership with Habitat for Humanity Canada and were the first 3D printed multi-unit fourplex constructed in North America. The Bridge’s future plans include the construction of 38 tiny home units to provide more housing in the community while generating income to support their operational costs.
Greg Wiens, Manager of Operations at The Bridge, says it all started in 2014 when he, along with several other members at Meadow Brook Church asked the question, “If our church ceased to exist, would our community even notice?”
“The hard answer to that question is, they probably would not know that we were gone. Life would carry on as normal,” Wiens says. “So we decided that we wanted to be more engaged in our community.”
After visiting a few other churches and agencies and doing some research in the community, God directed their hearts toward youth. At the time, there were limited services available to support the homeless youth in Leamington, in addition to those living in unstable and dangerous housing situations. The supports for young people that were currently available in Leamington were scattered across the community. A huge gap was identified; an organization was needed to centralize services, so that youth could be supported more effectively and holistically.
George Bergen, President of The Bridge, was also serving in leadership at Meadow Brook at the time.
“I came all excited back to the board, and we had this big vision, this big dream,” says Bergen. “We had come up with a vision of maybe supporting the youth of our community with a beginning budget and capital investment of a million dollars — and you can imagine adding a million dollars to a church’s budget! I think that really got the board’s attention.”
George Bergen, President of The Bridge (left) and Greg Wiens, Manager of Operations (right) are members of Meadow Brook Church. They were part of the group that asked, “If our church ceased to exist, would our community even notice?”
Upon much prayerful reflection, and though the board at Meadow Brook wholeheartedly supported the vision for The Bridge, it was decided the project was too big for their church.
Though Bergen and Wiens say they were initially disappointed with this decision, they quickly realized how being a separate charity could allow for countless more opportunities to partner with all levels of governments, other agencies and churches. “We get funding not only from many local churches, but a lot of the local businesses. We’ve had provincial funding, federal funding, municipal funding,” says Bergen.
“We’ve been blessed at all angles.” Meadow Brook Church continues to play a key role in operations at The Bridge. Many board members, staff members and volunteers at The Bridge attend Meadow Brook, and the church is a substantial donor to the organization. Though it looks different than initially imagined, Wiens says, “We are, as a church, living out our faith in our community.”
God has continued to open doors for the organization. Churches from all denominations in Leamington are working together, business competitors are uniting on building projects and those who initially opposed The Bridge now are among its fiercest advocates.
Additionally, out of a connection with one of the sponsors at The Bridge, another charity has recently launched called Leamington Community Hope Centre. It’s a place of connection, support and basic needs services for people of all ages experiencing homelessness and addiction in Leamington. “We’re excited about what God is going to do, [things] that we don’t even know yet,” says Bergen.
For more information on The Bridge Youth Resource Centre, visit their website.
