Sioux Lookout Anti-Racism Committee

SLARC has operated the Multicultural Youth Centre since 1995. This safe, cool, and popular hang-out is open five nights a week and provides programs and services for youth aged 12-19. For the past 12-plus years we have worked with successive generations of Nishnawbe and non-Nishnawbe youth and seen them grow and flourish in an environment that encourages them to be young and creative, and to plan and execute their ideas with skilled adult guidance. The Youth Centre fills a notable gap in a town where there is little to do after school for youth not heavily involved in competitive sport. In recent years, youth have planned and organized regional youth conferences, held drama nights, art nights, sports nights, coffee houses for the community, have hosted touring bands who have performed at the youth centre, and provided technical support and music for community events such as the Mayor and Council's inauguration in December, 2006. The August Sioux Mountain Festival, Sioux Lookout's primary musical event of the year, is run and carried out almost entierly by youth volunteers and high school summer students.