The CJE’s team. From left to right : Sylvain Lessard, Maxime Mainville, Diane Groleau, Nicolas Coutu, Audrey Vallée, Ginette Jolin, Stéphanie Dubreuil, Judith Olson and Isabelle Poulin-Rioux.
Around 1999, Randi Heatherington of East Angus was asked by Michel Beauchamp, then director of New Horizons Adult Education Centre in Sherbrooke, to help start a program for youth in the Upper Saint Francis region. Last month, some 25 years later, Heatherington and other founding members, along with staff, board members, and friends, highlighted the Carrefour jeunesse-emploi’s quarter century of successes.
The 25th anniversary celebration was held on October 17 at the Café Laurier in East Angus, just across the Saint Francis from the Carrefour jeunesse-emploi (CJE) du Haut-Saint-François’s offices.
Five short videos were presented, featuring key figures in the organization’s history, including Kasey Statton, Dominic Provost, Mathieu Drouin, Olivier Jean, and Mégane Beaudoin. Some of the videos are now published on the organization’s Facebook page.
A community crosses boundaries to help youth
Intervention coordinator Judith Olson was especially moved to point out a letter published in the Haut-Saint-François last year and co-authored by Kasey Statton, one of the CJE’s former youth clients.
“Whether due to isolation, lack of self-confidence, or difficulty managing our emotions, we as men get stuck when it’s time to ask for help,” Statton wrote in his July 2023 letter “What is a man today?” in French. “Despite our different paths in life and our young age, we all have one thing in common, that of silence. We are now more aware of the problem, and now it’s our turn to speak.”
Speak, he did, and ask for help, he also did, turning his story into one of the many CJE successes celebrated last month.
Executive director Sylvain Lessard was also featured in the videos and was among the founding group 25 years ago. He spoke of his pride in those successes and in the continuing offer of services to the community in both French and English.
