In April 2006, we founded a new 8-bed group home for youth in our vacant property and named it the Ray and Pat Wagner Home. We worked in collaboration with Family and Children’s Services Niagara on this joint venture to provide a caring and safe residential home for young people from our local communities. The home was named after long-serving Board member Ray Wagner and his wife Pat. Ray and Pat
Wagner dedicated much of their working and retired years helping to enrich the lives of young people and this appeared to be a fitting name for the new program. By the end of 2006, we recognized that our company name did not represent our overall service values and we decided to make a change. In November 2006, we officially changed our company name to Youth Resources Niagara Incorporated as we felt this better represented the overall scope of our work with young people in the Niagara Region. In the Fall of 2015, in response to falling bed utilization rates in the youth justice system, the Agency in partnership with Youth Justice Services (MCYS) reprofiled our open detention/custody operations in favour of a more contemporary and voluntary transistional program to assist youth in the stabilization of their community reintegration. Youth Resources Niagara’s commitment to assisting young people has, over the years, seen us expand our services by establishing a number of prevention-based community programs for high risk youth in the community. Working in collaboration with local police departments and other agencies, we have come to provide Extrajudicial Measures as well as Pre and Post Custody programs and services for local youth. Our dedication to community youth development has also seen us establish various local initiatives in our communities. In 1998 we formed a community youth basketball league that grew to be attended by over 100 local young people, and in 2004 we established an annual two week hockey camp for youth that offered both an intensive cognitive format as well as on-ice training. At present, Youth Resources Niagara is governed by a Board of Directors representative of a diverse number of professional fields in our community including education, law enforcement, social services, health care and business. Our Board membership is also reflective of the geographical and cultural diversity of the Niagara Region. Supported by a staff team of dedicated professionals and an engaged community, Youth Resources Niagara remains committed to ensuring that young people in the Niagara Region requiring residential and community assessment, placement and care continue to receive the most optimum and excellent professional services available. Through our professionalism, diversity, expertise, collaborative efforts and, above all, our commitment to assisting with the positive development of our youth, we look forward to many more years of providing the young people and families of Niagara Region with highest quality of care possible.
